Yoana Tuchkova - AUTOMATIC GALLERY

Yoana Tuchkova

All play and no work, 2025, Video 2’52”

I chose to jump rope in front of cremation niches - a way to highlight the stark contrast between the active movement of life and the silent atmosphere of rest. The presence of the body in this space is intentionally out of place. A cemetery demands stillness, whispers, and cast-down eyes. My body refuses to conform to this template. The repetitive jumping symbolizes the cycles of daily life that persist even in the presence of death.

The rhythmic sound of the rope hitting the ground and the repetitive motion create an almost meditative or hypnotic sensation, reminiscent of a heartbeat - the first sound we experience in the womb. Such an act is inherent to the playground; children have no innate fear of cemeteries - they perceive them as parks or gardens until society teaches them that these are places of grief and horror.

By using this element, I attempt to return to that primal state of innocence, where the boundary between play and rest is blurred.

Against the backdrop of gray niches and death, the bright color and physical exertion are my declaration of existence and a celebration of vitality.

Yoana Tuchkova’s practice spans painting and digital media, focusing on themes such as death, mysticism, sin, and the fundamental imperfection of the human condition. Her work explores the body as a repository for guilt, memory, and vulnerability - viewing it not as an idealized form, but as a site of internal contradiction and moral tension. Within her practice, the human figure often appears in a state of deformation or instability, serving as a visual equivalent to psychological and existential decay. In her work, sin is not depicted as a religious symbol, but rather as a state of human incompleteness and a failure to reconcile with one's own boundaries. Death is present not as a final act, but as a constant, almost physical sensation of finitude. Childhood and nostalgia emerge as traumatic remnants rather than a sanctuary, completing the cycle between innocence and guilt.

Her work functions as a personal, yet not intimate confession - a visual chronicle of internal states that refuse to be smoothed over or justified.