Interviewed by Hika K.
Louis Fleischauer is a performance artist currently residing in Berlin, after 12 year in Los Angeles. He directs and creates conceptual ritual performance art all over the world, including having his actors play the role of human sculptures and instruments. He also does wearable art in the form of conceptualized corset collections that he uses within his shows.
Hika: First of all, thank you for allowing me to do this interview with you. You have been doing body performances for quite a while now. How did you get into performing? Was there any particular moment or situation that you would call integral, that led you into it; a moment where the spark started?
Louis: Sound/music has always been a big part of my life and a way of how I define myself. In my late teens I started out experimenting with sound and various projects. Around this time I saw a concert of a band I really liked on CD, but the concert was so boring. At that moment I swore to myself there would be life on my stage. Using my body came naturally. Since I was a child, I had this fascination with blood. I used to get random nosebleeds. One night (I was five or six years old) I woke up covered in my own blood, there was this mix of fear and fascination. This might have been my first conscious high and the spark that triggered my desire for using my body to explore my mind.
H: In case our international readers aren’t as familiar with your works as we are in the German piercing scene, can you tell them about performances? Your work seems divided in two directions, that at the same time are connected, can you elaborate on both of those directions for us?
L: The two main projects of mine are Aesthetic Meat Front and AMF Korsets (Fleischauer Creations).
Aesthetic Meat Front combines Body Art Rituals with sounds created with the help of the human body (amplified heartbeats taken during breath control, microphones that are attached to metal coils which are connected to the skin with the help of hooks, brain waves captured whilst getting pierced/suspended). The intention of this project is to create a raw primal energy that awakens your instincts, to stimulate parts of your brain that have been castrated by that hyper digital, consumer friendly reality we live in. We, as a species, can only evolve if we put as much focus on the health and expansion on our minds as we focus on the health and growth of the economy.
AMF Korsets focuses on my wearable art, sculptured organic materials, mostly leather. Sometimes I present them on stage in conceptual fashion shows that also include some elements of performance/body art.
H: Do you feel that growing up in Germany still divided had any influence on your art? If so, to what extent is it still visible in the art that you are doing now?
L: Most definitely, it shaped me as a person and with this as an artist. Living behind the Iron Curtain and being constantly harassed by the police and Stasi for the way I choose to dress made me a strong believer in the right of self expression and the right to have control over your own body. Also the fact that it was impossible to buy any counter culture related clothing forced me to create my own, which was the first step towards AMF Korsets.
H: You are using suspension and pulling with hooks for your performances. Usually this is something seen from artists who have a background as piercers, but to my knowledge you have not worked as a piercer, have you?
L: I have way too much fun with needles to make it my profession. My background is experimental music and ritualistic performance art. Public suspension for me is a tool to show not only what can be done with the body, but which mental states can be reached with the help of the body. Over the years I did train with some very professional piercers. I’m grateful to have had Steve Joyner on my side while I lived in California.
H: As you probably know The Point is a publication from the Association of Professional Piercers, so it is very piercing-related. The reason why this edition is strongly focused around performance art is because this artform has certain crossovers with the body modification world, even if no needles or tools from our industry are used. What do you think about this, do you agree, do you disagree and regardless: how so?
L: Performance has its origin in the dramatization of ritual. Body modification also has its root in ritual. So it’s only natural that they are intertwined.
