He played bells until he passed out, now you can buy his skin

Performance artist Flatz’s tattoos continue to exist as works of art after his death. That is why the born Austrian wants to auction pieces of his own skin at the London auction house Christies on Thursday evening.

The charity auction is called ‘To Risk One’s Own Skin’. At the same time, an exhibition opens in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Until May 5, “Vlak. Something Wrong with Physical Sculpture” shows performances, sculptures and multimedia room installations by the 71-year-old from Munich – and a life-size doll of Flatz – naked except for the many tattoos.

The trained goldsmith from Vorarlberg has had thirteen tattoos of different sizes throughout his life, such as sayings such as ‘Courage is good’, a barcode or a coat of arms. Whoever wins one of the lots will initially not receive the original, but rather a placeholder: a life-size black-and-white photo of Flatz’s body, on which the auctioned portion of skin is highlighted in color. After his death, the real piece of skin is separated and inserted, prepared and placed behind glass.

He sees his skin as a kind of canvas, explains Flatz, who was at Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992 and often focuses on his body or even uses it himself in his sometimes extreme actions. The body is man’s first means of expression, his first garment, which ages and dies along with him. He refers to a Japanese tradition in which intricate tattoos are posthumously treated as works of art. Now he wants to define his own skin as a work of art that will outlive him.

The subject of dying does not scare Flatz: “Death is something very normal, a cycle,” he thinks. “I dealt specifically with death and often pushed the boundaries.” On his homepage he provides insight into his performance art, which is suggestive and sometimes disturbing.

In 1979, the public in Stuttgart was allowed to play darts at the naked artist. And in 1990, he hung himself by a rope from the ceiling of a destroyed synagogue in Tbilisi, Georgia. He swayed back and forth like a bell, repeatedly banging against two huge metal plates with a dull thud until he finally fell unconscious.

To ensure that everything runs smoothly legally after his death, he has a will. There it is determined who gets which part of the skin and what should be done with the rest of their body. “It will be burned and buried in an urn under a tree,” Flatz reports. “I give the skin to art and the body goes back to nature.” But until then it may take a while, Flatz hopes and announces: “I want to live to be 100.” (rbu/sda/dpa)