ThefucKINGFUCKS
Encyclopedia
thefucKINGFUCKS is an underground
Belgium
industrial rock
performance art
group that began as a musical side-project for controversial visual artist Kendell Geers
, Patrick Codenys of Front 242
and Choreographer / Performer Ilse Ghekiere from Charleroi Danses. The group was launched in April 2003 at the Pompidou Centre in Paris with a concert called "Prototype" under the name "Red Sniper". Since then, the group have performed in music festivals like Elektra Festival
Electronic Festival in Montreal Canada, a concert called "10 Guests" curated by Revolting Cocks
founding member Luc Van Acker
, "Guided by Heroes" curated by Fashion Designer Raf Simons
for Z33 in Hasselt and the Techno Music Festival 10DAYSOFF in Gent. Bootleg recordings of this concert are available for download on pirate torrent sites.
Artist collective
strongly influenced by the ideas and theories of the Acéphale
group of Georges Bataille
from the 1930s. The collective functions within a more experimental based esoteric
research group and an exoteric
Performance Art
and music group. Secretive research into the history and nature of rituals, rites, initiation, sacred sexuality and Magick is then translated into the public, more popular languages of performance, art, music, dance or installation. Following the Acéphale
model, there is a complete rejection of any form of social and political hierarchy and the group opposes any authoritarian form of leadership in terms of both their structure and their production. The operative members change even though the core has remained fixed since its inception in 2003. The group rejects the divisions that exist today between the different art forms and instead insist on working simultaneously in the worlds of dance, music and the visual arts. Frequently the collective presents their Performances or actions alongside their official more famous productions. For instance
"PostPunkPaganPop" was the title of a solo exhibition by Kendell Geers at the Depuryluxemburg Gallery in Zurich in June 2008. At the opening he presented a performance with the same name as "thefucKINFUCKS" It was also the title for a performance by thefucKINGFUCKS presented at the Cimatics V.J. Festival in Brussels in 2007 and the S.M.A.K. Museum in Gent
remains forbidden on most television channels and especially on MTV
, to which the group is generally opposed. They selected the name "thefucKINGFUCKS" (a line in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet ) in order to preclude assimilation into mainstream media.
defines an attitude as a musical genre, whereas pagan
defines the groups interest in rites, rituals and the question of faith. The public face of the group maintains the Pop centred style of music that Codenys became famous for in the 1980s.
"Demolition Party" in Paris. The installation called "LostLustLast" was "an orgy of ink that resembled the scene of a crime of passion" The pair worked in situ for a week, using the body to imprint images upon the walls, floor and bed.
to describe the music of Front 242
. A generation later Kendell Geers
defines his art as a "Panaesthetik", a term that attempts to describe an all-encompassing notion of aesthetics. Together with Ilse Ghekiere, their performances are sensory overload in which the senses of hearing, seeing, smalling, even touching are all pushed to their limits. The razorblade installations of Geers are the backdrop to the grinding electronic body music rhythms and beats of Codenys and the erotic female body in trance of Ghekiere is the key to unlocking the mystery. As a reflection of their interest in the dark arts, the sounds tend to hang in the extreme low sub base area and heard in the pit of your stomach more than the ears.
because United Nations
Resolution 338 is the annex to Resolution 242.
POSTPUNKPAGANPOP, DePuryLxuemburg Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
LostLustLast, Royal Monceau Hotel, Paris, France
A Spy in the House of Love, OPA, Guadalajara, Mexico
Smoking, MARCO, Vigo, Spain
2007
CIMATIC/07AV/FestivalBrussels International Festival for Live Audiovisual Art&VJing, Beursschouwburg,Brussels, Belgium
50 Jaar Vrienden V/H Smak, Ghent, Belgium
10 DAYS OFF, Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium
Biennale Charleroi danse, BPS22, Charleroi, Belgium
2006
Playlist, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2005
Cultuurcentrum Evergem, Belgium
Les Grands Spectacles - 120 Jahre Kunst und Massenkultur, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg, Austria
Elektra Festival, Montréal, Canada
Strange, Familiar and Unforgotten, Galerie Erna Hécey, Brussels, Belgium
Dans le Collimateur, Dieppe Scene Nationale, Dieppe, France
2004
Criminal Brides, Buda, Kortijk, Belgium
Videozone, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Playlist, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Opera Video, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2003
Rhythm and Chaos,Transart 03, Bolzano, Italy
Rhythm and Chaos, Beaulieu Art Gallery, Oudenaarde, Belgium
10 Guests, curated by Luk van Acker, Handelsbeursgebouw,Ghent, Belgium
Guided by Heroes, curated by Raf Simons, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium
Prototype, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
group that began as a musical side-project for controversial visual artist Kendell Geers
Kendell Geers
Kendell Geers is an artist, performance artist, musician and film-maker. Geers was born in Johannesburg in 1968.Geers' commonly given birthdate of May 1968 is fictional. Freire Barnes, "", Artist Pension Trust, 4 October 2007. Accessed 15 February 2011. In Venice in 1993, Geers rose to...
, Patrick Codenys of Front 242
Front 242
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.-Formation:...
and Choreographer / Performer Ilse Ghekiere from Charleroi Danses. The group was launched in April 2003 at the Pompidou Centre in Paris with a concert called "Prototype" under the name "Red Sniper". Since then, the group have performed in music festivals like Elektra Festival
Elektra Festival
Presented every year in May by , Festival is an internationally renowned digital arts festival established in Montreal since 1999.Renowned internationally as a cutting-edge festival, Elektra offers diverse experiences:...
Electronic Festival in Montreal Canada, a concert called "10 Guests" curated by Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks, also known as RevCo, is an American–Belgian industrial rock band and sometime supergroup that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry.-History:...
founding member Luc Van Acker
Luc Van Acker
Luc van Acker is a musician from Tienen, Belgium. He began writing and releasing solo material in 1982, and worked with a few other bands and with Anna Domino over the next few years. Then in 1985, he met Richard 23 of Front 242 at the DNA Club in Brussels, Belgium, and thereby became a founding...
, "Guided by Heroes" curated by Fashion Designer Raf Simons
Raf Simons
Raf Simons is a Belgian fashion designer. He studied Industrial design, but after a few years of self-study, he became a menswear designer in 1995...
for Z33 in Hasselt and the Techno Music Festival 10DAYSOFF in Gent. Bootleg recordings of this concert are available for download on pirate torrent sites.
Background
thefucKINGFUCKS are an Open sourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
Artist collective
Collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project to achieve a common objective...
strongly influenced by the ideas and theories of the Acéphale
Acéphale
Acéphale designates both a public review created by Georges Bataille and a secret and esoteric society formed by Bataille and some other members who had sworn to keep silence.-Acéphale, the review:Dated 24 June 1936, the first issue was composed of only eight pages...
group of Georges Bataille
Georges Bataille
Georges Bataille was a French writer. His multifaceted work is linked to the domains of literature, anthropology, philosophy, economy, sociology and history of art...
from the 1930s. The collective functions within a more experimental based esoteric
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
research group and an exoteric
Exoteric
Exoteric refers to knowledge that is outside of and independent from anyone's experience and can be ascertained by anyone. Compare Common sense. It is distinguished from internal esoteric knowledge. Exoteric relates to "external reality" as opposed to one's own thoughts or feelings. It is knowledge...
Performance Art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and music group. Secretive research into the history and nature of rituals, rites, initiation, sacred sexuality and Magick is then translated into the public, more popular languages of performance, art, music, dance or installation. Following the Acéphale
Acéphale
Acéphale designates both a public review created by Georges Bataille and a secret and esoteric society formed by Bataille and some other members who had sworn to keep silence.-Acéphale, the review:Dated 24 June 1936, the first issue was composed of only eight pages...
model, there is a complete rejection of any form of social and political hierarchy and the group opposes any authoritarian form of leadership in terms of both their structure and their production. The operative members change even though the core has remained fixed since its inception in 2003. The group rejects the divisions that exist today between the different art forms and instead insist on working simultaneously in the worlds of dance, music and the visual arts. Frequently the collective presents their Performances or actions alongside their official more famous productions. For instance
"PostPunkPaganPop" was the title of a solo exhibition by Kendell Geers at the Depuryluxemburg Gallery in Zurich in June 2008. At the opening he presented a performance with the same name as "thefucKINFUCKS" It was also the title for a performance by thefucKINGFUCKS presented at the Cimatics V.J. Festival in Brussels in 2007 and the S.M.A.K. Museum in Gent
Name
The group decided on the name thefucKINGFUCKS since the word FUCKFuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
remains forbidden on most television channels and especially on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, to which the group is generally opposed. They selected the name "thefucKINGFUCKS" (a line in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet ) in order to preclude assimilation into mainstream media.
PostPunkPaganPop
The term PostPunkPaganPop has been used by Geers to describe both his own work and that of thefucKINGFUCKS. Post-punkPost-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
defines an attitude as a musical genre, whereas pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
defines the groups interest in rites, rituals and the question of faith. The public face of the group maintains the Pop centred style of music that Codenys became famous for in the 1980s.
LostLustLast
On the 26 June 2008 Kendell Geers and Ilse Ghekiere presented their collaborative work in an installation at the Royal MonceauRoyal Monceau
The Royal Monceau Hotel is a luxury hotel located at 37 avenue Hoche, 8th arrondissement, Paris, France. The hotel has 203 rooms and 45 suites that have been recently refurbished...
"Demolition Party" in Paris. The installation called "LostLustLast" was "an orgy of ink that resembled the scene of a crime of passion" The pair worked in situ for a week, using the body to imprint images upon the walls, floor and bed.
Body Sound Image
The performances are an audio-visual-sensory-experience. In the 1980s Patrick Codenys used the terms Electronic body musicElectronic body music
Electronic body music or industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
to describe the music of Front 242
Front 242
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.-Formation:...
. A generation later Kendell Geers
Kendell Geers
Kendell Geers is an artist, performance artist, musician and film-maker. Geers was born in Johannesburg in 1968.Geers' commonly given birthdate of May 1968 is fictional. Freire Barnes, "", Artist Pension Trust, 4 October 2007. Accessed 15 February 2011. In Venice in 1993, Geers rose to...
defines his art as a "Panaesthetik", a term that attempts to describe an all-encompassing notion of aesthetics. Together with Ilse Ghekiere, their performances are sensory overload in which the senses of hearing, seeing, smalling, even touching are all pushed to their limits. The razorblade installations of Geers are the backdrop to the grinding electronic body music rhythms and beats of Codenys and the erotic female body in trance of Ghekiere is the key to unlocking the mystery. As a reflection of their interest in the dark arts, the sounds tend to hang in the extreme low sub base area and heard in the pit of your stomach more than the ears.
Multiple Identities
Since 2004 thefucKINFUCKS have performed under the names "Red Sniper, Firewire, Akephale, Kissing Kousins, USB2, PostPunkPaganPop, S338 and Suite 338. The number 338 is frequently used by the group as a reference to the group Front 242Front 242
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.-Formation:...
because United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Resolution 338 is the annex to Resolution 242.
Playlist
2008POSTPUNKPAGANPOP, DePuryLxuemburg Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
LostLustLast, Royal Monceau Hotel, Paris, France
A Spy in the House of Love, OPA, Guadalajara, Mexico
Smoking, MARCO, Vigo, Spain
2007
CIMATIC/07AV/FestivalBrussels International Festival for Live Audiovisual Art&VJing, Beursschouwburg,Brussels, Belgium
50 Jaar Vrienden V/H Smak, Ghent, Belgium
10 DAYS OFF, Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium
Biennale Charleroi danse, BPS22, Charleroi, Belgium
2006
Playlist, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2005
Cultuurcentrum Evergem, Belgium
Les Grands Spectacles - 120 Jahre Kunst und Massenkultur, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg, Austria
Elektra Festival, Montréal, Canada
Strange, Familiar and Unforgotten, Galerie Erna Hécey, Brussels, Belgium
Dans le Collimateur, Dieppe Scene Nationale, Dieppe, France
2004
Criminal Brides, Buda, Kortijk, Belgium
Videozone, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Playlist, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Opera Video, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2003
Rhythm and Chaos,Transart 03, Bolzano, Italy
Rhythm and Chaos, Beaulieu Art Gallery, Oudenaarde, Belgium
10 Guests, curated by Luk van Acker, Handelsbeursgebouw,Ghent, Belgium
Guided by Heroes, curated by Raf Simons, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium
Prototype, Centre Pompidou, Paris