The steel that was shaped by air.

Published 21 October 2026 · WHV · Public-source editorial note

Air is usually what a steel structure encloses. In Oskar Zięta’s NAWA, it also helped create the structure. On Daliowa Island in Wrocław, a sequence of polished arches makes a walk-through sculpture that seems to thicken and dissolve as the surrounding city moves across its reflective surfaces.

Pressure becomes structure

Unveiled in June 2017, the work consists of thirty-five steel arches. Zięta’s FiDU process forms welded metal using internal pressure, developing volume from sheets rather than carving it from a solid mass. The result brings a fabrication method associated with the studio’s smaller objects into an encounter large enough for a person to enter.

The lasting interest is not exhausted by knowing the technique. Reflections carry fragments of trees, water, architecture and passers-by onto the steel, so the work continually borrows its appearance from its setting. The arches also recall the surrounding city’s built forms. Material invention earns a public purpose here: it changes how an ordinary walk can be seen.

The work changes as you move

Visit from more than one direction and notice the difference between looking at the sculpture and standing inside its sequence. Our photograph records a close view through the arches rather than a complete elevation. Read the studio’s account alongside the independent unveiling report. No market price or purchasable edition is needed to explain this kind of value. It is an artwork whose most direct return is a changed experience of a shared place.

Source and context.

Zieta Studio: NAWA on Daliowa Island ↗

Polish Press Agency: the June 2017 unveiling and the artist’s explanation ↗

NAWA is a public installation, not an edition offered for acquisition. Claims concern its documented fabrication and spatial experience, not measured environmental savings.

Source checked 21 October 2026. WHV interpretation is distinct from the source’s account.