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Eross Istvan’s Body Drawing with Sun at Partapur

Eross Istvan is an acclaimed artist from Hungary, who currently participates in the International Sandarbh Workshop at Partapur, Rajasthan. As a part of the workshop, Istvan did a performance at the river bank in Partapur. He drew a few motifs, culled from his visits to the villages in Rajasthan, with kumkum and turmeric pigments. Then he exposed his body/skin to sunlight and once his body was tanned by the heat of sun rays, he washed the drawings off his body with river water. The drawings and the burnt skin of the artist together made a web of drawings, live and moving. The artist’s intention was to use his own skin as a canvas and the body a stretcher.

Istavan’s art practice otherwise centers around conceptual articulations on life and death, construction and deconstruction as witnessed in the European cities. He photo-transfers the images of grave yards and tomb stones and silk pillows, which are at once functional and aesthetic. He conceptualizes the pillows as place of transition where life merges with death and vice versa. He also hints at how death becomes a commodity and he analyses this aspect of death through his ambitious documentations of cemeteries in several countries.