Lukas Zpira

Lukas Zpira began his artistic career in 1992, at age 26. It was upon the presentation of two charcoal sketches that he was accepted as a member of the art collective "ADADA" in Avignon, which consists of about 30 artists of various influences. It was with the help and support of Daniel Romanie, founder and director of the collective, that he made his first real artistic experiments: paintings, sculptures, installations, writings, and photography. His works, closely related to nouveau realism, differed in style to his writing and photography, which were far more influenced by surrealism and Dadaism, notably Duchamps and Man Ray's rayographs.It was in 1993 that he took on the name Lukas Zpira, an anagram inspired from the surrealists. Multiple experiences and various exhibitions still left him unsatisfied, and he felt he had quickly reached the limits of his medium. He left the collective in 1995 to turn towards body art.Soon after, Lukas opened Body Art/Weird Faktory in Avignon, the first studio in europe dedicated to body modification, and immediately got critical respect for his detailed and precise cutting work. In a short period, Lukas grew from a talented cutter to offering a full range of body modifications.In 2000 Lukas organized the event ART-KOR.OO, which took place in Avignon, France, during the very famous art festival. This went on for 6 months featuring up to 80 performances and conferences from many international artist, giving birth to the ART-KOR collective.For several years now Lukas has been doing many body art performances and installations mixing suspension, scarification and branding along with Japanese traditional bondage performed by his wife Satomi. Since 2001 he has been touring all around the world. Together with Satomi, he recently gathered various artists and musicians (ODM, Kannelle, Phyl Von), as well as poets (Tarik Noui, David Defendi) within the collective "HACTION MUTANTE" with which they presented "HACTION I" inside the bunker of the abode of chaos in Lyon, France.In early 2004, in Japan, Lukas Zpira developed and wrote the body hacktivism manifesto, an artistic and political movement that asseverates the corporal biodiversity facing beauty standards imposed by Hollywood. More inspired by the extra terrestrials visuals of Star Trek than the tribal references of the modern primitive movement, this activism of a new genre asserts the heritage of science fiction in the battle for body autonomy.Lukas Zpira either coined or brought to the mainstream the terms "body hacking," "body hacktivism," "no body is perfect," and "like a butterfly."In the spring of 2005, his book "Onanisme Manu Militari II" was published by Hors Ed.In 2006 he published "Vampires" (ed.flammarion) with Laurent Courau and "hidden shadows" a monography (hors ed.).He as been featured in the documentary "No body is perfect" (2007) and has actively participated in the movie "Vampyres, when reality goes beyond fiction" (2008)