2010年 04月 23日 金曜日 09:27

The Beginners Guide To: Hell

Hell Party Cz 5
The beginners guide to: Hell

Body modification: a universal art form, practiced for thousands of years. Motivations include; sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, aesthetic reasons, denoting affiliation, trust and loyalty, religious /mystical affiliations, shock value, and self-expression.

After an evening at this year’s Hell Party in Prague I came to a sharp (there were a lot of pointy objects around!) realisation; most of us simply don’t use the blank canvas that is our body to its full potential; in fact do we even really experience our bodies at all?

Walking among the crowds that filled Palmovka's Abaton club last Saturday was like walking down an anti conformist catwalk that would have had Coco Channel turning in her grave. Tattoos in every hue proudly adorned limbs and torsos, if you'd ever wondered what it was like to have a ring here or a stud there, a mere sideways glance was enough to tell you. Eye arresting outfits incorporated a plethora of PVC and padlocks. From punkified tutus to metal thongs, latex saris to gimp masks, towering heels to multi-chromatic dreadlocks all were present, (in)correct and inspired.

But the crux of the party was the dramatic hell show that took place on Abaton’s main stage. The performance took body modification to its hardcore limits, including scarification and suspension. For those of you, who, like me maybe hadn’t thought about the creative possibilities of pain here follows a short introduction;

Scarification: includes branding, cutting, usually using a small blade to make thin or removing larger areas of skin, and other means of permanently marking skinner chemicals.
And? Like a lot of western bodymod art originally linked with S&M culture it has more recently it has broadened its appeal, and is carried out purely aesthetically producing complex and beautiful designs, much like a tattoo. Skin is also much more sensitive after scarification and many people like the feeling of their healed skin. For some it is also described as a ritual or a rite of passage.

Suspension: hmm, there’s no way to make this one sound “nice”… suspending the human body from metal hooks that pierce the skin in any variety of places, shoulder blades, forearms, thighs ect…
And? You only have to witness this once to see the huge rush of adrenalin and endorphins the protagonist/victim experiences, despite the sheer, burning, nerve ripping pain (also apparent)! It can also be a kind of personal challenge, a test of the body, a spiritual experience which can dissolve the schism of body and mind, or assert the mind's superiority over the body.

Why watch it?
Hell party made stunning, crowd awing shows from both these elements. Attention to lighting, set and costume brought an exciting element of spectacle to the procedures. Scarification was carried out in a boudoir, by two girls costumed like gothic-punk ballerinas. Suspension included a Dr Faust figure mixing potions whilst volunteers were suspended in the pose of the Vitruvian Man. But for me the reason the show was so captivating was the intense theatre of emotions crossing the performer’s faces. From terror as they realise the inevitability of the body rocking experience they are about to undertake, to acceptance, to agony to euphoria, it is rare to see someone undergo such emotional drama, so publicly. You find yourself celebrating the ecstasy that ensues once they achieve their goal.

Side effects?
Making you curious to know your own body better…could you undergo the torture…do you really know pain… would you be able to sit still, with your eyes open while someone pierces you cheeks with metal needles, or sews your lips together with wire….?

Why you will be going next year;
Body modification is often compared to ritual in a “primitive” sense and there are certainly a lot of elements of the ritualistic, also the tribal in the whole subculture. At Hell, whilst there were definitely common elements in the corporal rebellion, there was also a huge variety in the way people choose to style and experience their bodies (I haven’t even mentioned the temptations of the fetish stage, the erotic potential of pain). As an anonymous article on body modification hub bmezine.com suggests* through bodymod you “are making the statement that 'This is my body and it is not here for anyone, but myself' ….the individual is taking control of his/her body and sending a strong message of ownership". In a society where the most common form of body modification is probably breast implants (or botox; eternally freezing your face into an expressionless mask of conformity) a trip to Hell might be a very good idea for to get thinking about they ways in which we could really begin to own and explore our bodies.

Check out the photo gallery from this year at www.hellparty.cz

For all modification needs and enquiries: www.Hell.cz

Hell Party 17.04.2010 @ Club Abaton
PDF versionSend to friendPrinter-friendly version

Have you ever wondered about what goes on underground? Provokátor Staff have literally been to Hell and back to deliver a report for you…

Two writers and two photographers, completely unaware of what to expect, explored the makeshift dungeons of Club Abaton to discover why the biggest fetish party in the Czech Republic is so popular.

First of all, if you think of goth, fetish, leather and bdsm people as rude, distant and inaccessible, it's time to change your mind! The atmosphere couldn't have been more friendly and one could really sense that everybody had been looking forward to this special event. A profusion of acid colours, leather costumes, rubber, lattex, whips and mistresses roamed through corridors, stages, shops, concert halls and an exceptionally cheap but tasty vegan restaurant.

Obviously, our virgin curiosity drew us immediately to the fetish stage, where attractive and apparently helpless young women were volunteering to be tied up and whipped teasingly by big, bad leather clad men, to the laughter and applause of the audience, from whom some courageous partygoers would be next to to try it out for themselves.

But what really drove the crowd crazy was blood, or more precisely, the performance of two beautiful corseted girls, Maša and Kristina, cutting each other and licking away red drops from their thighs, while trying to reach an ecstatic state having their lips sewn together. This is what was going on during the Hell Show, on the upper floor.

Despite the clear and unequivocal sexual references, the two girls don't see their performance as arousing, "There is nothing sexual about it", says Maša right after the show, with her lips still partially sewn together, "it's like a ritual". Scarifications are really common among many tribes in Africa and in Oceania and they are often perceived as initiation rites, namely passages from one state to the other (e.g. from being a child to being an active member of society). Maša assures that she feels different after the ritual on stage as well. Kristina, her partner, has already been performing for 5 years, having started when she was just 18, and she agrees with Maša, "I don't feel aroused, it's more like taking drugs. Pain produces adrenaline, when I'm on stage, and after, I feel high". Also the audience didn't perceive the show as arousing but just exciting "I like pain", says Hana, at her third attendance at Hell Party, "I like to do it also in private", although her partner, Jakub, doesn't seem to agree "I'm completely new to the scene. I wouldn't try anything myself, but it's funny to watch". When questioned about the necklace she was wearing, Hana replies "I don't know what it means. It's just fashion". This remark illustrates something that seems central to the magic of Hell Party: fashion, appearance, dressing up, showing off and trying to get attention. That's exactly what Betty, a sweet transvestite, likes to do: "I'm really into fetish and dressing up; but I'm not interested in extreme pain. For example, I find the suspension workshop extremely boring; I like soft bdsm with my partner, but when I see a guy hung by hooks to the ceiling, I feel like an alien, I don't understand why people are interested in watching it". Apparently, in a world where everybody looks like an alien, there is still the chance to feel different or to have difficulty to understand; "Even in the fetish-bdsm scene, people can have some issues to be completely open-minded. My girlfriend, for example, accepts the fact that I like to dress as a woman when I'm home with her but she doesn't want me to appear in public like this".

If the scarification performance of Maša and Kristina wasn't intended to be sexy, surprisingly Tomas, an apparently regular straight next-door guy finds the suspension show sensual, maybe because "it was more extreme and dramatic". Basically, while solemn music is playing, a master and a mistress stick needles in the chest and in the arms of a scar(ifi)ed guy, and then insert hooks in the shoulders and in the wrists of a boy and of a girl, who are consequently lifted in a crucifix suspension position, seemingly in an eccentric mix of pain and pleasure.

A fundamental ingredient of the success of the event has definitely been the music, be it punk, metal or ebm. The crowd of vegan-friendly punk-rock followers seemed to have particularly appreciated the aberrant but still overwhelmingly involving performance of Super Pilot, led by their front woman Marika, for the occasion appearing in a gore-medical costume, just to reveal, later, a torn, provoking and blasphemous outfit, whilst making the audience freak out to the sound of good old dirty punk rock.

This colourful multicultural/multigender infernal circle manages to offer every kind of titillating entertainment you may wish for, from the softcore to the utmost hardcore; if you are fearful, you won't be too scared (just stay away from the main stage and stick to the stalls selling bags and to the kiosks of tofu hamburgers) and if you are a crazy devil, you won't be disappointed for sure. Have you lost your chance this year? Next time don't hesitate and please, go-to-Hell(.cz)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x7TtTIQnlk