The Osaka National Museum houses, among others, two works by Mirosław Bałka from 1998 - an ink drawing on paper entitled Boy carrying balls and a sculpture in wood, steel, salt and plastic φ51x4 , 85x43x49 , which has been exhibited several times as part of the museum's collection shows including the 2005 group exhibition Positioning - In the new reality of Europe: Art from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary .

Born in 1958, Mirosław Bałka is one of Poland's most prominent artists and his works appear in many museum collections and private collections. In 2009, the installation 'How it is' was shown at the Tate Modern in the prestigious Turbine Hall exhibition. The Osaka Museum houses (as of 2022) two works by Mirosław Bałka. An ink drawing and a sculptural installation φ51x4, 85x43x49 made of wood, steel, salt and plastic. The work consists of two elements of a chair hanging on a rope with a hole in the seat and hoops attached to the backrest. The chair is suspended so that it does not touch the ground and its seat is placed at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. A 51-inch diameter hoop filled with salt is placed in front of the chair. In it are placed two smaller hoops, without filling.

The motifs used in Mirosław Bałka's work, especially in the context of his other works, seem clear: salt that evokes dried tears, the eloquent absence of the human body, the chair not being suspended, empty circles - traces of memory, the symbolic proportions used in the title. These are recurring motifs in various ways in Bałka's work. A clear narrative about suffering, which can - as is often the case with Bałka - be read in the context of the Second World War, but which also has a more universal character. The understatements characteristic of Mirosław Bałka, the play between explicitness and complexity, build a special, disturbing character. They ensure that Bałka avoids the banalisation of evil, of which he easily epitomises suffering. Rather, we are confronted with its difficult, non-obvious and multidimensional experience.