The nest is a memorial of an anti-hero introduced into the public space. The nest is inhabited by a Vulture, one who awaits the misfortune of others to feed on it. In modern public space, monuments and memorials meet different advertising messages. Together, they form a system of positive communications: declarations of identity, role models and objectives to be fulfilled. Jerzy Kosałka, an artist consistently employing the subversive power of black humor in his works, suggests that this positive narration, however encouraging and mobilizing, always keeps something hidden.
The Vulture represents the unsaid powers and (anti) values, which are nevertheless present in the discourse about public space. Kosałka perversely and emphatically highlights this presence, assuming that the role of an artist is to evoke doubt and critical anxiety, rather than to confirm the existing system of symbolic coordinates. Therefore, the Vulture, a common bird, doing its own businesses, one that fouls its own nest, appears through the artist in the city space.
It is an allegory of ruthlessness and egoism which constitute disagreeable yet non-removable (and maybe even essential) elements of the social life. The Vulture is the one that feeds on the body (work, efforts, failures) of others. It is also an intent observer: it watches the society, looks out for those who barely manage, stagger and are on the verge of collapse. It is an anti-model – a monument of a character we do not want to follow, although many of us do it.