Entitled What You Can’t See, the show was launched at the Okno na Kulturę gallery in the Polish capital on Monday, state news agency PAP reported.
The focal point of the exhibition is the 1610 sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ, which for the past 400 years had adorned the dome of the Boim Chapel in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, formerly a part of Poland.
The statue was dismantled in 2021 and transferred to Poland last year for conservation and research, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the PAP news agency reported.
The new exhibition, organised by Polonika, the state-run National Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad, gives Polish audiences a chance to take a close look at the late-Renaissance limestone masterpiece, according to officials.
Polonika’s Director Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak told reporters that the event “is also intended to demonstrate the difficult and complex challenge of art conservation.”
What You Can’t See also highlights “Polonika’s policies over the past five years designed to protect the material heritage based outside our country’s current borders,” she added.
Lviv’s Boim Chapel, with the sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ, was built in the 16th century and financed by the secretary to Polish King Stefan Batory, according to historians.
Monday’s launch of the What You Can’t See exhibition was attended by Polish Culture Minister Piotr Gliński, Ukrainian diplomats and Lila Onyshchenko, an aide to the mayor of Lviv, the PAP news agency reported.
Available in Polish, Ukrainian and English, the showcase runs at Warsaw’s Okno na Kulturę gallery until November 25.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, polonika.pl