The dream

In The Dream, Ruslan Tihonciuc constructs a luminous allegory of childhood, in which imagination knows no limits to reality. The scene can be read as a sculpted fairy tale: the child dreams of catching the biggest fish and, more than that, of being able to ride it like a wild horse, to show off his feat with naive satisfaction. It is about the joy of play, about the power of fantasy to transform the world.

Compositionally, the work puts into dialogue two essential forms: the child's body, rendered simplified, and the ample volume of the fish, exaggerated to fantastic dimensions. This disproportion is not a realistic "error", but the poetic mechanism of the dream: in the child's mind, the prey becomes miraculous, and the moment of success takes on legendary proportions. The fish is no longer just the object of desire, but is transformed into an imaginary vehicle - an adventure partner, the bearer of a journey in which the impossible becomes natural.

Travertine contributes to the gentle character of the scene. Although the stone is hard, the volume is rounded, with smooth transitions and a calm overall expression, which enhances the impression of dreaming and innocence. In this dense materiality, the artist fixes a fleeting state: the moment when the child sees his wish fulfilled and feels, for a second, that he can master a fabulous “monster” without fear, just through play.

Sculpture thus preserves the essence of childhood: the joy of inventing, of exaggerating, of transforming a desire into an adventure and an adventure into a memory worth telling.