At first glance, the piece reads as familiar: St. Padre Pio, seated beside the corpus on the cross. Walk around it, though, and the scene changes. Padre Pio is not simply praying — he is hearing confession, exactly as he did for up to fourteen hours a day during his ministry.
The work is built to be entered, not just viewed. An empty seat waits on the penitent’s side of the confessional, inviting the visitor to sit. From there, the screen no longer shows Padre Pio’s face — it shows the face of Jesus. And where Padre Pio’s hand would rest, a wounded hand reaches through instead, marked by the wound of the crucifixion.
