The STYX. Levan Songulashvili
Published by ERTI

The STYX is a book of mental, emotional, and psychological passage by Levan Songulashvili. It refers to a sense of exigent myth and allegory, alluding to the famous mythological river as a site of psychical transformation. It is the point of transit and entry to the imagined underworld, and stands for the experience of life as that of journey and passage, a voyaged dream into the ravelled beyond, leading to an awakening that acknowledges the expanded awareness of new realities. From living consciousness to masked unconscious, from life to death, and the imagined world and afterlife, the River Styx is an aqueous symbol of radical change from the mutable aspects of the world to immutable and inevitable certainty of our eventual passage. For these reasons the project conceived as an immersive experience as expressed through video installations and a unique series of sepia and black and white related paintings by Songulashvili.

The book includes Songulashvili’s previous and recent works, including paintings, drawings, collaborative art projects and video-sculpture installations. The STYX is for the viewer a personal journey through emotion and consciousness, a sensory immersion into mortality and sensibility — the passage that is a human life.

Mark Gisbourne is one of Europe’s most internationally renowned and respected curators and art historians. British-born, educated in Rome and currently based in Berlin, he is a truly global figure with extensive knowledge and life achievements within various spheres of the art world. Mark was a former Tutor at the Courtauld Institute of Art; Lecturer of the Master’s programme at the Slade School of Art in London; as well as postgraduate Senior Lecturer in Post-war and Contemporary Art, at Sotheby’s Institute. He was former President of the British Art Critics Association (AICA), and an International Vice-President who co-organized the World Congress of Art Critics, Tate Modern, London, at its opening in 2000. Mark Gisbourne has curated numerous exhibitions worldwide, and written a dozen books and more than 250 catalogue essays, published in over 20 languages. His profound knowledge and distinctive vision have asserted his long-standing success.