PREQOR I (2026) Bronze sculpture by Konrad Ziolkowski

This city did not exist. It was not there, and even if it was, it must have been so small. People did not live there the way we do, at least that is what I heard. And if they did live there, perhaps they were somehow unimportant to us, probably thinking differently, differently from us, less importantly. After all, it was not a country,
it had no laws, no agreements with those other wise ones. It was probably just some region.

Besides, it is far away. Here, where I am, it is quiet. Everyone is doing something, worrying whether the mortgage payment will go up and whether to choose the all-inclusive option for the holiday or not. And in truth, everything unpleasant exists only on television. When I start feeling sad, I turn it off, because I do not like it when other people, those faraway people, suffer or cry. No one has ever proved to me that they exist. After all, they are only in my television, on the internet, in the newspaper. I turn it off and they disappear. Then everything is normal again, pleasant again: a queue at the supermarket and stupid problems.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter. I like every season. In winter, you can fool around in the snow; it is cheerful…

You supposedly wise person on the other side of the television — my television has evaporated, melted away, burning on the floor. And
I heard that there is such a thing as a country, and people who made agreements with others, and that I do not have to worry about what I see outside the window. I think that what I see through the window, you see on television. Yes, mine has probably burned down together with the whole house and several people — neighbours, their families. I bet those people saw it on their televisions.

I do not like winter, because some people freeze still and never move again. That is how it is here when we fail to come to an agreement with others. I do not like summer, I do not like spring or autumn, because in one way or another, everyone here dies…

And here, on my all-inclusive holiday, I do not like war, because that big shiny bomb may always explode, and then, I suppose, what is far away will suddenly become very close. Perhaps my television too will melt across the floor, together with the carpet and the rest of the estate.

I heard that people created a scale for weighing people, and that it weighs our people and your people, your children and ours, wives, brothers. They say — and everyone knows this — that it weighs everyone fairly. One of ours equals ten, a hundred, a thousand of yours. Who made this scale? Who is the creator of this instrument? A demon or a human being? A greedy colleague? A friend of beautiful people in beautiful houses and televisions? I do not know.

A human being. Heart, lungs, head, hands, mind, memories, family, dreams, longing, love. You close your eyes. Silence. Peace… How much does a human being cost? One ordinary human being? How much does ours cost, and how much does yours? A person turns off the television, extinguishes conscience, injustice, suffering — everything disappears.

PREQOR, disappointed and deceived for millennia, watches and waits with pity until the last television goes dark.

Materials used:

bronze, marble

Details:

• Bronze sculpture on Other
• From a limited edition of 8
• Size: 30 x 190 x 20cm
• Signed and numbered certificate of authenticity
• Style: Expressive and gestural
• Subject: People and portraits