February 27th, 2005. It was going to be my first IAM-meeting/suscon and I would be doing a backpull. So that morning I walked nervously to the train that would take me to Maastricht. In Maastricht I waited about an hour before I was picked up (and almost froze my feet off in the meantime) and was brought to the venue. The meeting was held in an old Vendex storage house, which was baptized "Villa Vendex" by its squatters. A stone-cold, grey, empty and dark storage room was transformed into a room with a wonderful atmosphere for the suspensions. There were patterns of sand made on the floor; the walls were covered with various nets and cloths. Tree trunks stood at various places in the room; big chains and stones hung from the ceiling; animal skulls gazed at you from a few corners. Candles and lanterns spread their fire and the rig was an adapted tree-trunk. Warmth came from an improvised fireplace – a metal barrel from which the lid and bottom were removed in which chopped up pallets were on fire, with a metal pipe leading outside serving as a chimney. It was still pretty cold but it was doable. I saw the same room a couple of weeks later in its normal cold and dark state and it was really a huge difference which made me appreciate the efforts made to create a nice atmosphere even more.
At A Glance Author psychonautje Contact psychonautje@bme.anon IAM psychonautje When A month ago Artist Truth Seekers Syndicate Studio Villa Vendex Location Maastricht, The Netherlands When I got there the room was already pretty filled with familiar faces from IAM, as well as many unfamiliar faces. Later a few other people showed up too. I got pretty hungry from waiting for an hour at the train station, and luckily there was plenty of cake, drinks and chocolate to fulfill my needs (there was fruit as well I think but that's way to healthy for me). I chatted with Elise, Bert, and Yannick for a while somewhere close to the fire to stay warm. Then Kor came to Elise and told her that he had scheduled her first and that she could go get her hooks. As Elise and I had promised each other to take pictures from each other, Kor, Elise and I went up to the canteen.
In the canteen a little corner was separated from the rest of the room with colorful curtains. Behind these curtains the hook throwing took place. There was a table, a little heater, and lots of gloves, hooks and needles. Rule and Jimmy (of Bodypiercing Lifestyle) threw Elise's hooks – four in her upper back for her first suicide suspension, and she took them very well. Down we went again.
Elise warmed herself up in front of the fire and then it was time to be rigged. The entire room fell silent as she slowly went up. She hung there for a while and then slowly started to swing. Funny moment: everybody was silent or whispering, and then there was a huge BANG: Daniel hit his head against one of the (iron) lanterns. He scared the shit out of everybody - everybody was so focused on the suspension. Elise's suspension lasted for about 10 minutes I think. I was so impressed, she did a really good job for a first-timer. Back up to the canteen to have the hooks removed and the air massaged out of her back. Kor handed her a little baggie with her hooks.
Next to go up was Collin (I may be mixing up the sequence of things here though), suicide style. He went up but unfortunately blacked out pretty fast. It was kind of scary to see for me even though I black out myself every now and then. Luckily he was satisfied and on cloud 9 afterwards anyway. Next was Harry who came all the way from Ireland for the meeting. He did a two-point chest suspension. He went up slowly and hung there silently for a few minutes. I was in awe; it looked so intense.
Probably the most spectacular suspension to look at was Rainer's suspension, who decided to go up right there on the spot. It was his first time, and boy did he go crazy on his hooks! He swung around as hard as the room would allow him to go, the pipes on the ceiling to which the rig was attached moved violently back and forth with a lot of noise – several people looked up to them to see if they wouldn't come down, but they didn't. He lifted extra weights while hanging and his suspension lasted for at least half an hour I think. I don't think he really wanted to come down already because he was having big fun hanging around there, but as he said: "I can't hang around here forever...".
Then it was time for the pulls. For a while I wondered if I shouldn't just go up as well, after seeing so many amazing suspensions, but I decided against it, and did the pull. You can read in detail about mine right here. A guy (I forgot his name unfortunately) did a pull at the same time outside of the building. I didn't see any of that but he pulled around a little car all the way down the street and got quite some funny looks of people in a bus that came passing by. Around this time, the food was ready too, so after my pull I had a well-deserved meal. First there was tomato-soup, and as main dish there was vegetarian pasta with carrot salad and Turkish bread. Veeeery nice. Mad props for the cooking team!
When I had just finished my food Bert came down from the piercing room with 12 hooks and skewered cheeks, ready for his coma. A lot of people had left by this time and they truly missed something. Everybody in the room was so silent when he slowly went up, and the good vibes were amazing. He hung there for around 20 minutes. He seemed to be cold as shivers went through his body every now and then but he didn't really experience it that way. You can read in detail about his coma here (it's in Dutch though).
Around the same time, Lydia had her "butterfly" wings and fin attached. She built a device to test whether it would be possible to do a suspension with hooks down her spine only. It's hard to explain what it looked like, but you can go check the pics on her page. At this point in time Naomi had decided she wanted to go up too. She came down with her top cut open and four hooks in her back for a suicide. She did a good job, but didn't stay up too long.
After the last suspension, the room got emptier and emptier. Suddenly there was a crate of beer, in spite of the event being drugs and alcohol free. We just sat and talked with a handful of people around the fire, drinking our beers. It was a nice end of a wonderful day. I thank Steffen and Be for dropping me off at home, which was way better than spending a lonely hour in a train. I went to bed with a sore back and a satisfied smile on my face.