The Subculture Jetsetter
for Eloquence Magazine, September 2009

Lukas Zpira is called a “subculture jetsetter” who’s been pushing the boundaries of evolution through his artwork. By performing body mutations, like tongue splitting for a reptilian look, he becomes a part of evolution. And this jetsetter is equally comfortable with a scalpel in the one hand and a camera in the other.

"Pretty is easy and pointless..."

Lukas Zpira started his career in his native country of France. He has been part of a surreal world of body hackers and counter culturalists for more than a decade now. He ignores the standard of beauty put forward by Hollywood.

“Pretty is easy and pointless in my point of view,” Zpira says. He prefers to give people the freedom to create their own look. Something made possible in the surreal world of body hacktivism.

According to the body hacktivism manifesto, written by Zpira, the term body hacktivism “was born from the necessity to define a movement of artists, researchers and thinkers working around mutations and using body modifications as a medium”.

Zpira feels that body hacking gives people the freedom to evolve as they choose. He says there’s a copyright on biotechnology and as a backlash to this him and his peers choose to use the term ‘body hacking’ for what they do. From piercings, to tattoos and body mutations give people the ability to “use the body as a way to change ourselves.

"Art is empty if it doesn't take you on a journey inside your emotions."

“For the first time humans have the power to choose what they want to become,” Zpira says.
What Zpira is involved in then is more than simply art. For him, it seems to have become a way of thinking – a subculture of its own.

“Art is empty if it doesn't take you on a journey inside your emotions. My art isn’t for me to describe, it is for the spectator to describe,” says Zpira.

Trying his hand at various art forms, from photography to body art and even performances with his wife Satomi, makes Zpira a versatile artist who isn’t afraid to try new things.

“For me there is no barrier between the different forms of art. I use the one that helps me to express what I have to express - body art, photos, performances, and text.”

But it’s not only the world of art that flows as one. The private and professional also melt together as Zpira’s art is part of the subculture he inhabits.

Zpira and his wife Satomi, a body performance artist, have known each other for six years, and have been married for four of those. She isn’t only an inspiration to his photography, but takes an active part in Zpira’s lifestyle and interests. As a couple they host daring performances together in big clubs or, their favourite, small art galleries.

The performances revolve around such little explored areas as Japanese bondage, body suspensions, fetishisms, death, and sex. These themes are clearly present in his photography work too, as can be seen in the recently released photographic book Tokyo Love Doll.

The book was inspired by love letters that Satomi wrote to Zpira who was in Avignon, France while she was in Osaka, Japan.

“Satomi used to write me a lot as we were living so far away from each other. She used to take on different characters and create various fantasies but one character that came out a lot was TokyoLoveDoll. It was only natural for us to take these characters and build images around them. Some of these are dominant, some childish, others passive. It covers a vast field of fetishes".

Ultimately Zpira stresses that although his work covers themes like fetishes, death and sex, he wants to keep the images tasteful. It’s not meant to shock, “we just try to push some limits and try to bring people into an interesting emotional adventure.

“If people react to our work, we make our point. And our point is to bring about mixed emotions and self questioning.”

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