MARIE TOMANOVA
IT WAS ONCE MY UNIVERSE
PRESENTED BY PRAGOVKA GALLERY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
It Was Once My Universe is the autobiographical story of a homecoming. Returning from New York to her native Mikulov, a Czech village in South Moravia, and to her family’s farm after a decade of absence, Tomanova documents her reunion with loved ones. And yet a disquieting strangeness dominates the atmosphere. The house she missed so much—reminisced about, fantasized, took imaginary refuge in during the most difficult moments of exile—has become an unfamiliar frame, disjointed, in which she no longer has a place. She experiences all the more forcefully the feelings of disorientation and loss of identity, closely tied to her uprooting, because they now inform the “homecoming” she has so long looked forward to. This series extends the artist’s exploration of the genre of the self-portrait. The camera’s date stamp reminds us of time, the moment when the photograph was taken, which, given so precisely here, contrasts sharply with the murky time of memory.
Born 1984 in Valtice, Czech Republic. Lives and works in New York, United States.
https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/expositions/view/975/marie-tomanova
Marie Tomanova, In Dad’s Sweater (All That is Left), from the It Was Once my Universe series, 2018–2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Marie Tomanova, Willy with Horses, from the It Was Once my Universe series, 2018–2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Marie Tomanova, Chairs (Mom and Willy), from the It Was Once my Universe series, 2018–2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Marie Tomanova, Bread, from the It Was Once my Universe series, 2018–2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Marie Tomanova, Sphinxes, from the It Was Once my Universe series, 2018–2019. Courtesy of the artist.