Post stamp collages

For decades, postage stamps have helped shape a nation’s self-image, articulating its history, achievements, landscapes, heroes, and culture. Though small and seemingly neutral, they serve as instruments of official historical narratives, circulating across the world with everyday correspondence.

Pola Dwurnik asks what happens when these narratives are taken apart and reassembled. For more than a decade, she has collected unwanted postage stamps from around the world—mint and postmarked, contemporary and historical, individual stamps as well as complete series. From them, she carefully cuts out the depicted images or fragments of images, along with the names of the issuing countries.

Using hundreds of thousands of these carefully selected fragments, Dwurnik constructs intricate, multilayered collages, recomposing the original stamp imagery into new visual constellations and new systems of meaning.

English Collage The Wave, 2025, English postage stamps, on paper 48.6 × 80.5 cm
English Collage The Wave, 2025, English postage stamps on paper, 48.6 × 80.5 cm
Swiss Collage Bouquet for Architect, 2025
Polish Collage Bouquet for Oskar Zięta, 2025, images cut out from the Polish post stamps on paper
Polish Collage Wrocław, 2024, 38.5 × 73.5 cm
Polish Collage The Music Bouquet, 2024, 49.7 × 35.8 cm
English Collage The Wave, 2025, English postage stamps on paper, 48.6 × 80.5 cm
Polish Collage Mother Eve, 2024, images cut out from Polish post stamps on paper, 47.6 × 35.4 cm
Polish Collage Alcina’s Dress 2, 2024
English Collage The Queen 05, 2024, 55.5 × 42 cm
English Collage The Queen 01, 2023, 55.7 × 42 cm
Polish Collage Vanitas, 2016, 34.7 × 34.7 cm
Polish Collage Panorama of Warsaw, 2016, images cut out from Polish post stamps on paper, 348 × 100 cm
Working on Warsaw panorama, 2016 April, fot. by Teresa Gierzyńska
Work in progress panorama of Warsaw, 23rd April 2016, fot. by Pola Dwurnik
Work in progress, 2016
Work in progress, 2024
Work in progress, 2024

STAMPS DONORS:

Witold Holtz, Warszawa, Poland

Ruth Mitchell, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Piotr C. Kowalski, Poznań, Poland

Agnieszka Wąsowska, Warsaw, Poland

Beata Wąsowska, Tychy, Poland

Katarzyna Nalezińska, Warsaw, Poland

Stanisław Naleziński, Tarnów, Poland

Iryna Harasym, Warsaw, Poland

Włodzimierz Nowaczyk, Poznań, Poland

Magdalena Bocheńska, Warsaw, Poland

Małgorzata Krzanowska, Warsaw, Poland

Axel Bauni, Berlin, Germany

Tadeusz Rolke, Warsaw, Poland

Wanda Gierzyńska, Sydney, Australia

Jakub Stelmaszczuk, Warsaw, Poland

Marta Pieczonko, Köln, Germany

Erwin Michalowski, Düsseldorf, Germany

Zbyszek Gozdecki, Warsaw, Poland

Emilie Buri, Basel, Switzerland

Magdalena Maśluk-Meller, Berlin, Germany

Mikołaj Maśluk-Meller, Berlin, Germany

Maria Apanowicz, Radom, Poland

Katarzyna Krysiak, Warsaw, Poland

Monika Klonowska, Poland

Zofia and Justyna Śmigasiewicz, Wrocław, Poland

Jakub Pijewski, Tokyo, Japan

Marta Wasąg, Warsaw, Poland

Gerard Mitchell, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Marta Koller, Wien, Austria

Anna and Paweł Kempa-Dymińscy, Warsaw, Poland

Russel Hahn, Vero Beach, Florida, USA

Teresa Gierzyńska, Warsaw, Poland

Paulina Olszewska, Berlin, Germany

Weronika Słodkowska-Dziedzic, Warsaw, Poland

Tomasz Stefaniak, Malbork, Poland

Pat Ludders, Arcadia, MI, USA

Justyna Natalia Wojciechowska, Łódź, Poland

Aleksandra Berłożecka, Warsaw, Poland

G. N., Basel, Switzerland

Aleksander Serdiukow, Warsaw, Poland

Tomasz Kosiński, Częstochowa, Poland

Magdalena Grenda, Warsaw, Poland

Adam Gutkind, Bruxelles, Belgium

Felix Kälin, Basel, Switzerland

Marcin Tollik, Warsaw-Gdynia, Poland

Franziska Trefzer, Basel, Switzerland

Ewelina Guzik, Zürich, Switzerland

Ryszard Tollik, Warsaw, Poland

Róża Puzynowska, Warsaw, Poland

Vaughn Hong Ping, NYC, USA

Justyna Wesołowska, Warsaw, Poland

Piotr Wawrzeńczyk, Warsaw, Poland

Margret Powell-Joss, Oban, United Kingdom

Thomas Behling, Berlin, Germany

Nora Lüdin, Basel, Switzerland

Julia Harasimowicz, Warsaw, Poland

Natalia Kichula, Lviv, Ukraine

Irena Kichula-Petrij, Novoyavorivsk, Ukraine

Dietlinde Gogl, Berlin, Germany

Daniela Pfeil, Basel, Switzerland

Jan Telęga, Warsaw, Poland

Deborah Adams Doering, NYC, USA

Magdalena Kościańska, Zielona Góra, Poland

Anna Nabel-Myszkiewicz, Zielona Góra, Poland

Kazimierz Spiak, Zielona Góra, Poland

Justyna Spiak, Zielona Góra, Poland

Agnieszka Spiak, Zielona Góra, Poland

Karolina Spiak, Zielona Góra, Poland

Wojciech Kozłowski, Zielona Góra, Poland

Dorota Podlaska, Warsaw, Poland

Anna Łazar, Kiev, Ukraine

Magdalena Falska, Basel, Switzerland

Michał Biały, Warsaw, Poland

Olga Biały, Warsaw, Poland

Dorota Kwiecinska, Wiesbaden, Germany

Tomasz Grochowski, Warsaw, Poland

Ewa Jączyńska, Warsaw, Poland

Patryk Koca, Sydney, Australia

Paulina Pilch, Warsaw, Poland

Justyna Minc, Warsaw, Poland

Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Warsaw, Poland

Szymon Rogiński, Warsaw, Poland

Magdalena Car, Warsaw, Poland

Anna Cieślewska, Warsaw, Poland

Magdalena Gniadek, Warsaw, Poland

Zofia Waślicka, Warsaw, Poland

Barbara Białobłocka, Warsaw, Poland

Jadwiga Socha, Warsaw, Poland

Tadeusz Socha, Warsaw, Poland

Simona Slanicka, Basel, Switzerland

Michèle Kappeler, Zurich, Switzerland

Anna Gierzyńska, Warsaw, Poland

Mirosława Nowacka z d. Olszewska, Warsaw, Poland

Stefania Grygier-Kołodziejczyk, Kamień Pomorski, PolandŁukasz Saturczak, Warsaw, Poland

Agnieszka Obszańska, Warsaw, Poland

Piotr Zygmunt Kowalski, Berlin, Germany

Anna Maria Kraus and Paul Kraus, Malmö, Sweden

Werner Käser, Zurich, Switzerland

Ewa Siemińska, Warsaw, Poland

Daniel Ożga, Warsaw, Poland

Michalina Ożga, Katowice, Poland

D. i R. Ożga, Górki Śląskie, Poland

Joanna Gładyś, Warsaw, Poland

Halina Kappeler, Geneve, Switzerland

Hans Meyer, Küsnacht, Switzerland

Jacek Gralik, Otwock, Poland

Ania Sołtysik, Otwock, Poland

Tadzio Sołtysik, Otwock, Poland

Wera Blanke, Berlin, Germany

Igor Bloch, Brussels, Belgium

Monika & Adam Probosz, Warsaw, Poland

Maria Popovich, Lviv, Ukraine 
Arkadiusz Sokal, Warsaw, Poland
Stefan Baran, Rodnowo, Poland
Sandra Djajadisastra, Germany
Łukasz Dziedzic, Katowice, Poland 
Marta Ostrowska-Drabczyk, Wrocław, Poland
Elvira Eevr Djaltchinova, Warsaw, Poland 
Adrian Kurowski, Warsaw, Poland
Piotr Korzeniecki, Warsaw, Poland
Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Warsaw, Poland 
Anna Łazar, Wołomin, Poland
Ivanka Berchak, Warsaw, Poland 
Dorota Wnuk, NYC, USA
Justyna Wróblewska, Warsaw, Poland
Maciej Ferenc, Warsaw, Poland 
Karol Kozieł, Warsaw, Poland 
Mikołaj Chylak, Warsaw, Poland 
Włodzimierz Gorko, Zurych, Switzerland 
Katarzyna Rzehak, Warsaw, Poland
Agata i Przemysław Mateccy, Warsaw, Poland
Urszula Kusz, Warsaw, Poland

 

INSTYTUCJE/ INSTITUTIONS:

British Council, Warsaw, Poland

Embassy of Ukraine, Warsaw, Poland (thanks to Swietłana Mironczuk)

Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, Warsaw, Poland (thanks to Agata Aydin)

Austrian Post (Österreichische Post AG)

Australian PostDie Post, Switzerland

The International School of Costume and Fashion Design, Warsaw, Poland

Galeria BWA Zielona Góra, Poland

Museum Ziemi Lubuskiej, PolandLebus Theatre, Poland

Postal Museum of the Slovak Post, Slovakia

Embassy of Lithuania, Warsaw, Poland

We also thank Poczta Polska (Polish Post) and the Czech Post for their kind support.

 

THANK YOU