Ziarno – Epitafium Życia, Poznań

Grain - Epitaph of Life - an outdoor sculpture located in Poznań in the central part of the Citadel park, between the rosarium and the Armament Museum.

The author of the work is Andrzej Banachowicz - a graduate, lecturer, teaching staff member, professor and vice-rector of the University of Arts in Poznań. In his work, he focuses on existential and metaphysical themes, expressed primarily in artistic textiles.

The sculpture Grain - Epitaph of Life, unveiled in May 2009, also takes up existential themes. A seed is a popular cultural symbol of the beginning of life, but also of self-sacrifice. Giving life, it undergoes decay itself, being transformed into something else. In the central point of the pedestal, the artist has placed a large, bright grain, surrounded by beads tangled in threads - symbols of inevitable transience. The grain may also be understood as a potential reservoir of possibilities. Placing the object at the Citadel, a place of heavy fighting in 1945 that ended in the deaths of many people, but also rebuilt as a park, a popular destination for walks with children, is such a symbol of death and rebirth, sacrifice and life.

The owner of the sculpture is the Provincial Public Library in Poznan, and the depositary is Wielkopolskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych.

Near the Grain stands the figural group Unrecognized by Magdalena Abakanowicz, and the sculpture Cosmonaut by Waclaw Twarowski.