LUXURIA

Inspired by Shunga—the so-called «spring pictures», erotic woodblock prints from Japan’s Edo period—LUXURIA explores lust as the most sensual form of human longing. It goes beyond mere desire: LUXURIA delves into the intimate search for fusion, for self-forgetting in the Other, for the dissolution of the self in a moment of ecstasy.
 

From a feminist perspective, Shunga are particularly compelling: they depict women not merely as objects of desire, but as active, pleasure-seeking subjects—a rarity in many other historical visual traditions. Female lust is not only represented but taken seriously, even as these works simultaneously reflect patriarchal structures and male fantasies.
 

From an art historical standpoint, Shunga demonstrate that eroticism in Japanese visual culture was not regarded as obscene, but as a legitimate, dignified subject—treated with technical refinement, visual poetry, and stylized exaggeration. Enlarged genitals were not intended as pornography but served as artistic devices to express emotional and physical intensity.
 

Sexuality was not taboo, but a natural part of life. Shunga reflect a culture that did not exclude
the erotic, but embraced it as an integral part of beauty and humanity.
 

LUXURIA draws from this perspective—while raising a pressing question: Where does desire end, and obsession begin?