Body-Modification Infiltration

This class explores how body-modification practices and aesthetics extend beyond their traditional circles, influencing and infiltrating other artistic disciplines. Artists Luna Duran and Lucas Foletto Celinski engage with these practices in unconventional contexts, examining their reception outside familiar subcultures. The course will discuss experiences of both acceptance and rejection, how dialogue can open new perspectives, and strategies for maintaining an open conversation with diverse audiences.

Luna Duran has performed worldwide both within the context of events produced for the Body Modification / Body Suspension community as well as major theaters, opera houses, and contemporary art galleries thanks, in large part, to her collaborations with the Austrian Director/Choreographer, Florentina Holzinger. She was the first person to perform a body-suspension at Volksbühne Theater in Berlin, in addition to scarification in other venues where audiences had never previously encountered such practices. In this class, students will examine examples of her work as well as behind the scenes documentation enabling the discussion of the challenges of presenting body-modification art in spaces where proper education and historical context are lacking. Topics will include navigating these settings, engaging with other artists, and using these performances as tools for awareness, professionalism, education, and radical commitment.

Lucas Foletto Celinski incorporates body-modification themes into his own artistic practice, analyzing its role as an art form and its complex relationship with the fine art world. His research has uncovered issues of prejudice, visibility, and institutional resistance. Part of his practice involves studying figures like Albrecht Becker and Fakir Musafar, curating exhibitions of their work, and advocating for their artistic contributions. Through this, he aims to bring awareness to the historical and cultural significance of body-modification in art.

The class will highlight Duran and Foletto Celinski’s extensive collaborative work, including jewelry-making, ritual piercing performances, and suspension art. Students will explore how these works have been exhibited in museums and galleries, as well as the varying receptions they have received. The course will also examine camouflage methods and abstraction tactics used to negotiate visibility in spaces where body-modification remains a politically charged subject. Notably, while their work has been exhibited in China, it has faced censorship in Germany, illustrating the tensions surrounding these practices in different cultural contexts.

Additionally, the class will explore the ongoing struggles of artists like Albrecht Becker and Fakir Musafar, among others, whose contributions to art remain underrecognized. Is body-modification itself the issue, or is it the broader perception of the practice that creates barriers to acceptance?

Through case studies, discussions, and visual analysis, this class will critically examine body-modification in contemporary art and its intersections with social, political, and institutional structures. It will also explore connections with other artistic practices that intersect with body-modification, including occultism, sculptural jewelry, installation art, theater, and photography.

by: Luna Duran & Lucas Foletto Celinski