Purification Sculpture in Kraków

"Purification" (Puryfikacja) is a white sculpture of a pig set on a platform in the Vistula, between the Powstańców Śląskich Bridge and the Father Bernatek Footbridge, opposite the Kurlandzki Boulevard (Kazimierz) and the Podolski Boulevard (Podgórze). Its author is Mateusz Okoński.

What it shows

The figure has its limbs raised upwards and rests on beams resembling a pyre, on the plinth of the former Wanda well in the river. It was made of pressed marble fragments. It was created as a diploma work at the Sculpture Department of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, in 2009.

A history on the river

It was shown publicly for the first time on 28-29 October 2010, for a single day. In 2012 it returned as part of the ArtBoom festival and stayed permanently. In 2019 the sculpture was vandalised with spray paint. The work is sometimes read as a metaphor for liberation from fears and a difficult legacy, with a reference to Jewish Kazimierz and to the graphic novel "Maus" by Art Spiegelman.

Practical information

• The sculpture stands in the river itself, so you view it from the bank, from the boulevards on both sides of the Vistula.
• Kazimierz with the Old Synagogue is on the opposite side from Podgórze, and Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory lies a few hundred metres from the sculpture.