EROS & THANATOS
solo show with EDUARD CHURKIN
March 13th 2025 – June 12th 2025
ONLINE VIEWING with ARTNET, ARTSY & KUNSTMATRIX
Worldwide
galerie bruno massa is thrilled to introduce to international audience a solo show from Eduard Churkin named Eros & Thanatos.
Sigmund Freud was sure that every person is guided by two drives: to life and to death. He called these conflicting instincts Eros and Thanatos. Eros us the drive to pleasure and life aimed at development. Thanatos is the drive to death, aimed at destruction. According to Freud, we have attraction both to life and death. These are two basic and antagonistic human instincts. They manifest themselves in the physical world and are the basis, the foundation of life. Eros means a progressive tendency, the desire of a living organism for development and complication. Thanatos, on the contrary, is the organism's craving for simpler forms, destruction and self-destruction. Eros is also opposed to Thanatos by the desire for death. This is the focus on the destruction of a living organism and its return to an inorganic state. Thanatos is also based on libido and can be directed both outward against other people or objects, and inward. Eros and Thanatos are constantly fighting each other. Each instinct wants to pull the human “I” to its side. True, says Freud, the outcome of this war is predetermined by nature, the death drive always wins. In his creative process Eduard develops this theme in a visual nature, it’s an attempt to comprehend what is happening in his artistic life and the world surrounds him. The theme of Eros is taken from photographs and videos of various eras in the global context, as well as literary and musical works that inspired the artist. From light erotic works to pornography, materials are presented in various technical executions and semantic loads. By instance, works have been created in the technology of photo materials described as negative and positive. It means that pictures are born from the film negative, then they become a photography positive. With the help of a special program: WEB-Tool.org or IMGonline.com you can convert the image. Two effects of the same image can cause completely different interpretations. Eduard Churkin also used the so-called “dissolve” technique used in cinema. When a static image is on canvas, it can evoke a completely different semantic load in the viewer, in contrast to an image in cinema, where it may be unnoticeable or not evoke any feelings or interpretations. In the painting on the canvas, one image is superimposed on another and causes additional informational expressions that enriches the work. Artist’s assumption is that Picasso's "cubism" originates precisely from the storyboard of the film image and the superimposition of one frame on another. Perhaps Picasso studied the art of cinema in his epoch.
Eduard Churkin is a Russian artist born in 1976 who lives and works between Krasnodar, Russia & Tbilisi, Georgia.
Eduard Churkin
15th Congress of the All Union Communist Party in 1927
2024
Tempera on canvas
73 x 93 x 4 cm - 28,7 x 36,6 x 1,6 in
Eduard Churkin
Tinto Brass's Memory
2024
Tempera on canvas
90 x 139 x 4 cm - 35,4 x 54,7 x 1,6 in
Eduard Churkin
Grace Retro
2024
Tempera & graphite pencil on canvas
93 x 73 x 4 cm - 36,6 x 28,7 x 1,6 in
Eduard Churkin
Erotic Retro TV
2022
Oil & pastel on canvas
90 x 139 x 4 cm - 35,4 x 54,7 x 1,6 in
Eduard Churkin
White Imbalance
2024
Oil on canvas
93 x 73 x 4 cm - 36,6 x 28,7 x 1,6 in
