Walking on Eggshells
Solo exhibition by Daniela Torres
Photography/Installation/Sculpture
Curated by Louise des Places at Luisa Catucci ArtLab, Berlin 2024
In Walking on Eggshells, Daniela Torres offers a profound meditation on resilience and the transformative power of art. Through her collection of deeply personal works, art becomes not only a mode of expression but also a means of healing.
At the heart of the exhibition lies an interactive multi-sensory installation of delicate ceramic eggshells sculptures. Visitors are invited to walk across the fragile eggshells, an act that compels them to become acutely aware of their own weight, their presence in the space, and the delicate nature of the ground beneath them. This experience evokes a heightened sense of self-awareness and careful movement, reminiscent of the moments in life when we feel as though every step we take or thing we say could cause something to break. The soft cracking of the eggshells underfoot becomes a powerful allegory for the fragility of human connections, the weight of unspoken emotions, and the invisible pressures we carry in everyday life.
This act of walking across a field of delicate, breakable forms also echoes the artist’s own journey —a process of moving through a vulnerable state, feeling broken but determined to regain oneness. Crafted with the help of participants in the artist’s ceramic workshops, this collaborative piece serves as both a multi-layered metaphor and a gesture of community support, drawing on the power of collective healing.
Alongside the installation is presented 11k Kilometers for Healing, a photographic series of self-portraits taken during a journey through the Galapagos. These images capture moments of introspection, each frame an attempt to process difficult emotions and reconnect to the self and the body, through nudity and the diverse textures and sensory experiences—water, rocks, sand, the sun’s warmth. Lying on the beach in front of her camera, master of her own image, the artist experienced a sense of solace and reawakening, conveyed in these photographs.
The demons she is fighting are also present in the space. My Demons is a collection of sculptures representing the artist’s emotions, mostly uncomfortable, yet softened through their vibrant colors and amusing faces. These pieces are as testaments to the dualities and complexities of human experience, where light and dark emotions coexist, often in unexpected harmony.
Lastly, Ultra Contemporary Medusa is a reimagined self-portrait inspired by myth and lived experience. In Greek mythology, Medusa was a beautiful maiden who was turned into a monstrous Gorgon by Athena as a cruel and unfair punishment for being raped by Poseidon in the goddess’s temple. Blamed and punished for a crime she didn’t commit, Medusa is still a symbol of women’s suffering and rage, and the myth resonates as a critique of how society often vilifies victims of sexual violence, highlighting the gendered double standards surrounding sexuality and the enduring consequences of such trauma.
In Daniela Torres’s version, Medusa’s head sprouts flowers, symbol of renewal, instead of snakes. By reclaiming this figure, she casts Medusa not as a monster, but as an emblem of transformation and rebirth after the experience of trauma, and offers an image of empowerment.
