Collection

Piotr Uklański’s Untitled (John Paul II) is a photographic portrait of John Paul II formed from the bodies of 3500 Brazilian soldiers. The photograph plays with the cult of national icons (the dark face of the Polish Pope), patriotic impulses, and passions, while simultaneously integrating with the continuity of papal representations in Polish art. This work was also exhibited on a Warsaw billboard in spring 2005, at the crossroads of Marszałkowska and Świętokrzyska streets—the site where the Museum is to be built. That display coincided with the Pope’s death, which meant that Uklański’s picture instantly became a place of religious reflection and homage to the deceased, regardless the artist’s intention