Interview with Florin Flueras

My name is Tugiaru. I was the main character of Ciocanul Fara Stapan. It was a long time ago. The music was strange... to be honest, awful music, by Pierre Boules. It was so awful (goes to the piano and plays an example). The music was live. The orchestra was on stage dressed in colouful costumes, they were naked from the waist and down. Stere was very inspired by Vienna Actionismus.
I was ashamed of what I was doing. I did awful things, extreme piece, traumatical experience. (thinks to himself) I imagined that it would be…I don’t know if I can continue this… this is not art.. it destroyed the live of 12 people this choreography.. it was pornografic and very aggressive..
I remember entering with a hammer (not a real one, of different material) in the right hand.. and I would beat myself in the head. I had to move on a diagonal. I would move back with the music, and repeat the same again. I really damaged myself. Sometimes I had blood in my face. (Zombie movement)
Stere was inspired by Zombie movies. I had to walk around with very fragmentary movements, and I would go around and damage the brains of the other characters. From the hammer came a kind of paint that looked like blood came on the other actors. and now actually the piece started.
In the beginning Stere worked only with me, and with Adina Cezar. We were the main characters. She was wearing a kind of thing made from red bird feathers, covering only the front and back of her pelvis. She wore a wig like a flame on her head. She was very lascivious, erotical, but much more than.. I don’t want to say all the things hat she did in the piece.. it was a scandal!
The performances I see here at cndb now are not as contemporary or strong as what we did. We where much more contemporary.
At the beginning I tried to connect with the music, but I felt I couldn’t make any movement. We were twelve in the piece. I don’t remember but at some point in the performance I was completely naked. Stere wanted us to be very strong, and we tried with our eyes to hypnotize each-other. There were 10 people in two rows, masturbating.
And we came like this, (shows) walking in a kind of zombie-like, vampire-like way. We were completely in a trance. We didn’t hear the music anymore. And this transformed into a very violent movement, and again into a very erotical movement. we expressed everything, at the begining i tryed to conect with the music, to hypnotize each other, i don't here anymore the music, a big light, a zombie love, very sensitive moment, see everything and nothing, ecstatically subtle moment of pure love, exosting the brutal expression, the violence, porno, to came to a subtle sensitivity, pure emotion, Zombie love. A very sensitive moment. We touch subtly. The light came on us. A very ecstatically moment of love. So, going from violent expression toward pure emotion. He wanted to exhaust it into sensitivity.
A complete shock in Paris. the music and light, it was the most strange thing that happen in my life. We felt empowered, we produced a kind of.. it was the most strange experience in my life.
It was very minimalistic. I felt that if I did like this with my hand, I felt like I could touch the audience. That I could burn them. I was transformed, And when I do it together with Adina, it was that same. It was too much for the audience. Some people wanted to stop this, and the other half was in an ecstatic trance.
I don’t know what happened. Stere was a kind of genius or something. He asked us to go into this kind of states. He took a long time to convince me to do this. I thought I managed to get over this event, but now that everything is coming back to my mind, it is too much!
What was the set like? It was with reflectors, reflexes in different colors. The light came from everywhere. Kind of pulsating. The lights were the only set. Slow movement. Very warm light. Affective light. I’ve never seen something like that ever. He was a genius. The music also contributed to this mood. There was a good part and a bad part. Still after so many years I don’t understand what happened.
The dramaturgy was in us. Stere said this, because in both of these two performances, We damaged the brain, into violence, into this extatical, heavenly thing. Our gestures, almost levitating, we’re going in the space, completely changed how the audience were affected, no so careful to be expressive in the beginning. Going from one side to another. Banging with the hammer-violent zombie dance-into sensitive erotic movement.
Big light, like in a movie that he showed us, we feel the others, and from this we became a unity. And we finished in a kind of orgyastic unity. Very beautiful. Finish. It was suddenly over.
It is the only piece that deal with some important issues, like Vienna Actionismus, African Trance, Aggressive. Beautiful sometimes. It’s like a bomb. Like an explosion in front of you.
The piece premiered here, but we did it without the masturbation. The people who was doing the masturbation did instead this movement (shows), it was stylized. He couldn’t come back to Romania after it premiered, because of the big scandal in Paris.
I really don’t like that I can not control my emotion, I laugh, I cry, this I really don’t like. I think its from the hammer or from the light? Maybe it’s from Adina? She was very powerful! Anyhow, I was exposed to something that I couldn’t deal with it, and now I am completely modified. I cannot recover from it.
I like it a lot, this moment of unity with this ..mumbles (the orgy).. it was very beautiful.