MOTIFS OF FLESH AND MEAT IN THE 'AKTION'S OF RUDOLF SCHWARZKOGLER

The performance art movement and its focus on the body as a new ground that unites both the subject
and the material provides a ground for fruitful discussion on themes of body, subject, action, and
perception. The movement rose concurrently across the globe in the late '60s, in the wake of shifting
political and philosophical discourses centering the body as their main problematic, and their
approach to art has inspired many critics to reconsider long-held views on the dualities of
subject/object and artist/audience. The European body art movement has also enraged quite a few
with its disrespect of the sanctity of the body and art; artists frequently mutilated themselves and/or
forced a reaction out of the viewers through shock tactics. Amongst the most infamous shockers was
Wiener Aktionismus Group in Vienna, whose use of grotesque touched upon subjects of desire, taboo,
physical integrity, performance, ritual, and theater. For the phenomenological interpretation of the
performance pieces of the group, I have chosen the Aktion Series done by Rudolf Schwarzkogler,
which features the artist subjecting his body to various masochistic acts and the photographic
documentation of them in stark black and white. A helpful analytical tool enabling a more extensive
look at the meanings of these 'aktion's which I have used in my article is the 'Material Action
Manifesto' which is written by Otto Muehl, who is a member of the group, and signed by the other
members. The analysis is centered on the 'body' and uses the notions of flesh in Maurice Merleau-
Ponty and the meat in Gilles Deleuze to go beyond the initial shock effect of these actions and grasp
what they mean in a phenomenological context.

The core idea of Merleau-Ponty's view on perception is that all the phenomenological subjects
available for understanding are mingled together in the fabric of the body, thus rendering the
separation of the organism from the object that he perceives to be a dilemma in itself; the subject
constitutes the object simultaneously they are integrated in what Ponty calls 'flesh'. The flesh,
according to him, is neither 'matter nor substance' nor it is mind, since 'a mind could not be captured
by its own representations (Merleau-Ponty, 1961). The act of perceiving is the uniting ground of the
sentient and sensible; body extends its surface to encapsulate the world, which in turn, gets
transplanted into the body; altogether constituting flesh. Every object that I perceive thus become a
web of connections in which 'every object is the mirror of all others', according to Ponty.

The notion of flesh and the extended body in Merleau-Ponty provide an interesting outlook on the
subject of performance art. The notion of the seer in Merleau-Ponty's framework as not an entity that
simply approaches sensible subjects but opens themselves up to the sensible world and in turn, getting
incorporated into it crystallizes in the notion of body art; yet, the action coming before sensation
confuses the phenomenological approach of Merleau-Ponty, and opens up new fields of debate. Body
in Schwarzkogler's art is a surface of disruption and debate. The artists engages in the action of
opening himself to the world; meanwhile, the body of the artist is also a unifying ground for both the
eye and the mind, acting as a mediator between flesh and idea, projecting simultaneously an
embodiment of a scripted thought (theatricality of performance art) and its own interwoven-ness with
flesh (the body seeing and being seen at the same time.).

It is not unlikely to consider the subversive actions of Schwarzkogler as physical manifestations of the
concept of 'living body' of Merleau-Ponty; the body is opened up, disrupted, communicates with its
surroundings, get affected by them, becomes a site for the social and the cultural to be cultivated in.
Schwarzkogler is naked in front of the spectators, covered in gauze and mutilating himself. The
organic and the synthetic materials merge together in his work; blood leaves the flesh and colors the
bandages red, a nail enters to the head, surgical instruments are scattered nearby him, some partly
buried in his body and some out in the open. The use of gauze is critical in all of the actions of
Schwarzkogler. It is partly driven by a fetishization of the medical, but gauze is also employed as a
material to mute out the persona of the actor. It is through concealing his eyes and face that
Schwarzkogler renders his body as 'merely a body', not necessarily that of artist thus freed from the
burden of personality. He even used the body of his model and not his own, Heinz Cibulka, in the
installments of the Aktion series; yet many have missed this due to this concealment. Thanks to the
deliberate concealment, rumors arose after artist's death that his death was a result of blood loss due to
genital mutilation, even though his death took place long after the actions. Actions both consists those
installed on his own body and the Aktion series which an 'actor' had the role of adding a secondary
layer between the artists and his object, thus creates a special case of being in-between a 'performative
painting' and a 'performance art piece'. This non-action oriented quality of his art makes it easier to
speak of it in Merleau-Pontian terms of body, mind, tangibility and gaze. It also illustrates the unity of
the senses (the performance appeals to all senses simultaneously and its aktion-ness of it has this
quality as a defining characteristic) - the 'synaesthetic perception' that we are unable to come to the
realization of, because of '...scientific knowledge shifting the gravity of experience.'(Merleau-Ponty,
1945).

Parallels can be drawn between Schwarzkogler's approach and Merleau-Ponty's envisioning of the
body not as a spatiotemporal mass but as a 'bundle of functions', a holistic ground of projecting
sensation and receiving it. Indeed, the spots of the body that are not covered by gauze in
Schwarzkogler's work constitute the place for the action to take place in. The distinction between his
body and other objects are blurred through a series of enwrappings of the gauze; a strategically placed
head of a dead fish resting on the top of a ball of fabric, both of them positioned between
Schwarzkogler's legs. The surroundings and the body of the artist merge into each other and their
mutuality showcases the indiscernibility of the perceiving and the perceived. An excerpt in Meat
Manifesto draws parallels between painting and body art, which are relevant considering the former is
of great interest to Merleau-Ponty and his assertation in Cezanne's Doubt that elaborate how painting
is 'done with the body and not the mind':

...material action is painting that has spread beyond the picture surface. The human body, the laid
table or a room becomes the picture surface. Time is added to the dimension of the body and space.

It is also interesting to consider how Merleau-Ponty would react to this manifesto, due to the
limitations his theory of the flesh faces when used to theorize upon the actions of the artists doing
body art. The concept of flesh alludes to a transcendental base in Merleau-Ponty and thus constitute
the world in terms of a mutual relationship and unity between the seer and the seen. Yet, what is
lacking in Merleau-Ponty's framework becomes visible in the case of, as Deleuze puts it, 'the flesh
falling from the bone' (which happens quite often in the masochistic acts of Schwarzkogler).

Merleau speaks of the body in terms of integration; Deleuze, instead, in terms of disintegration.
Looking at the work of Schwarzkogler, in the following discussion, will help to illustrate how
Deleuze's theory of sentient, violent, politically charged, free-flowing, multiplying bodies can help to
enhance and drive further the (by contrast, more traditionally phenomenological) framework of
Merleau-Ponty; and shows us how 'body art' can exhibit both the integration and the disintegration of
the theoretical conceptualization of body at the same time.

The common concern of both Schwarzkogler and Francis Bacon as read by Deleuze is the moment
when the body begins to dissolve and shift as a result of forces external to it, through a movement
'...from figure to the structure' where 'the body escapes from himself' (Deleuze, 1981). Through this
outlook change, the focus which was just the body itself in Merleau-Pontian reading of the art
becomes something else; the movement itself. This escape takes the form of contractions and spasms
in both Bacon's portrayal of isolated figures and the body art of Schwarzkogler; the contractions ('a
deformed and deforming movement') constitute the rhythm of the movement of the body. The body of
Schwarzkogler goes through a series of being, as described by Deleuze when he was speaking of
Bacon, 'isolated and deformed' to being '...sometimes contracted and aspirated, sometimes stretched
and dilated'; this is evident from black and white photographs that were taken of Schwarzkogler and
his model during his performances where he positions his torso, legs and arms in unfamiliar ways; the
disruption and the deformation of the body is still evident from the bodily fluids scattered all over him
as well as the medical tools stained with blood, but it is through this positioning and this capturing of
movement that the Aktion series are carried from simply being performances on the body and its
extending, and becomes performances that are mediating on the body 'as body only' (and body not as
in relation to a grand phenomenological concept that represents it in a unity), examined from the
inside, in a state of trying to escape its own boundaries, This is the Deleuzian body; the clashing field
of various forces.
The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, sometimes dubbed as a radical re-reading of Nietzsche, is heavily
interested in movement itself and centralizes it in the discussion of human experience. Existence is
described in terms of different 'forces' or functions interacting with one another and proliferating
bodies, which is described as entities coming into existence out of any interaction between two forces.
This notion of body is different than Merleau-Ponty; when he uses the word body, it is to mean the
body of the seer, instead of the more general description of Deleuze. This approach to body allows
Deleuze to see art in a different fashion: art too is described as a 'force', a revolutionary one at that,
instead of a tool for communication and explanation. The societal 'revolutionary' angle which
Deleuze's all philosophy is tied together with (a transcendental political enquiry takes much of the
space of Deleuze's theory; the domains he search this revolution exist as a demonstration of how
Deleuze's revolutionary-ism is radically different and interwoven with his own theory from certain
other philosophers like Sartre where the politics feel as an afterthought of the theory) effect was
prominent in all of the works of the Viennese Actionism including those of Schwarzkogler. The
Actionists treated the activity with wit and humor, alongside a serious mission to 'bring a state of
cathartic awareness' by shattering the previous preconceptions on the roads the body must travel in,
thus create new fields for resistance move in a Deleuzian fashion.

In contrast with other artists operating under Viennese Actionism group, Schwarzkogler's works'
primarily interests were not the invocation of a ritualistic situation that is experienced simultaneously
with the crowd. Most famous instances of Viennese aktion consist of orgy-like gathering of bodies
where aim of losing individuality in a crowd in a state of 'collective effervescence' is the main
subversive tactic. In contrast, the body is isolated and preserving its distance with other individuals in
Schwarzkogler's work. This envisioning of the body drives forth two differing forces. One that
reflects alienation (the use of a model instead of his own body as if he was drawing on canvas), a dark
eroticism akin to the sensations that fascism evokes in its subjects (the forces of seduction that
enchants a crowd, examples of which are plenty in Anti-Oedipus), and masochism; and the other,
through the inherent paradoxes of masochism and Freudian death drive, a revolutionary opening of
new grounds for movement through a subversion of the boundaries of body and principles governing
action. Syringes, alien liquids and sharp shards of glass are forced into the body of the performer, who
remains in a state of irresponsive bliss while he is freed from the yolk of identity through a loss of his
own perception and other's perception of his through the lens of identity through a covering up of the
body. The ritual is subverted into intra-projection. Through seeing this deeply psychosexual and
traumatic Freudian situation through the eyes of Deleuze, with his project of transcending beyond
Freud on the topic of human action and desire, that Deleuze's philosophy and Schwarzkogler's can
enter a process of opening up new places for cumulation, intensification, and transformation of
thought; which is precisely what Deleuze conceptualizes as the role of the art critic, and the aspiration
of his polemic on cinema in Cinema 1: Movement-Image.
Another theme that constitutes a ground for debate for Schwarzkogler and Deleuze is the appreciation
of chaos. Deleuze describes the artwork of Bacon, as well as Klee and Cezanne, as works showcasing
'abyss (), catastrophe and chaos' and the same could be said of Schwarzkogler's aktions. The
photographic evidence of the actions are instantaneous stoppings of movement that reflect of both the
theatrical intent, and the theatre exceeding itself by reminding us of a state of visceral, brutish,
momentary shock that existed in the action itself and takes the form of a ghost in photograph - in
short, encapsulates the 'catastrophe'- that goes beyond an organised performativity of body and
reaches to a point of intensification that results in a 'line of flight' (Logic of Sensation, 1981). The
photograph is acting as a reminder that this shock we give is only second-hand, and distorted due to
the loss of temporality). The line of flight is conceptualized as a force that breaks down the actual and
elevates it to virtual and described as a 'vanishing point' by Deleuze in his discussion of painting. He
describes painting as the only subtype that 'hysterically integrates its own catastrophe' and the painter
as the embracer of this chaos. Through an examination the different types of 'embracing the chaos' as
described by Deleuze, we see that there is a certain uniqueness to Schwarzkogler's vision of a body
scattered on the table in a unity with the tools of torture he has used to mutilate it, since none of the
categories can fully explain its dynamics.

Through an examination of Schwarzkogler's work with Wiener Aktionismus, we can see that
terminologies of both Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty can be applied it to deconstruct and re-ground a
piece of performance art. Despite the fact that both thinkers have never directly spoken of the subject,
their discussions on the body have been a big influence in the most shocking performance art pieces
starting from the late '60s. Merleau-Ponty's notion of flesh and synaesthetic perception highlight the
all-encompassing, integrated, instantaneous, 'raw' side of the experience of performance art. His focus
on senses and how they operate is also a focus of the performance art movement, despite the
movement itself being fairly heterogenous in their ways of tackling this subject. In case of Wiener
Aktionismus, the coming-together of the senses takes the form of a rather violent and bloody undoing
of the integrity of the body; and once the scalpel enters into the picture, the necessity of having to
speak of the body itself in a struggle to transcend itself. This is where Deleuze's much denser
conceptualization of body (and also 'force') and his set of analytical tools that were used in the
investigation of Bacon's scenes of crime come in handy. Deleuze offers a more dynamic
conceptualization of the art which also differentiates from Merleau-Ponty's; art, for Deleuze, is a
multi-directional force that subverts the rules of the game and exhilarates the desiring machine. Once
projected upon the work of Schwarzkogler, Deleuzian philosophy and the phenomenology enter into a
conversation that transforms and enriches both of them, while still preserving their differences.

rem Kayra zdemir

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Bibliography:

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Deleuze, G. (2012). Francis Bacon: the logic of sensation. London: Continuum.

Deleuze, G., Seem, M., Guattari, F., Lane, H. R., Foucault, M., & Hurley, R. (2013). Anti-Oedipus:
capitalism and schizophrenia. London: Bloomsbury.

Deleuze, G. (2013). The movement-image. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

O., Mehl. (1967). Meat Manifesto. Vienna.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. New York: Humanities Press.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). Eye and Mind.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1991). Sense and non-sense. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press.

Rudolf Schwarzkogler. (n.d.). Retrieved June 05, 2017, from https://www.artsy.net/artist/rudolf-

schwarzkogler#!

(Note: I have preferred to read the works of Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty that are mentioned in the
class in print forms; this is why text page numbers in brackets are omitted and a bibliography of the
material I investigated regarding the topic is presented.)