One of the key references informing Tochman’s work is the short fiction of Italo Calvino. Exploring themes of labyrinths, the condensation of reality, and its multilayered nature, Calvino constructs cosmic landscapes as uncharted territories—spaces that become symbols of infinity and the inexpressibility of human experience. In the short story All at One Point, the author takes us to a time preceding the expansion of the universe, a vision inspired by the scientific model of the Big Bang. He describes the difficulty of existing in a reality so dense and compressed that there is no room for movement. The protagonist attempts to move, to find a place for himself, to differentiate his own being, yet the conditions are extreme. The sense of personal identity becomes blurred, as it is impossible to distinguish oneself from anything else. Only the transformations unfolding within the landscape allow the protagonist to begin shaping a sense of individual identity.
Agata Cukierska, Katarzyna Kalina, from the curatorial text for the exhibition Endless Blue, CSW Kronika, Bytom, 2025
Watering holes
180 x 140 cm, oil on canvas
2024
Everything heads toward the centre
