“Imagine a room: on the wall hangs a mirror, next to it stands a chair, on the table - a vase. Still a lamp and a stool under the window. Ordinary objects, with an established purpose, to serve as long as possible, preferably to please the eye as well. Now look around you. At the nie/pokój exhibition you will also see objects for interiors - a chair, a stool, a vase, a lamp, mirrors. Designed and made by contemporary Polish craftsmen. Ceramics, glass, wood, fabric. The building blocks of everyday life. Take a closer look.

A chair without right angles. A blurred image in the mirror, the shape of many vases irregular, jittery, the surface of one of them bears traces of flames. This vessel was formed from melted crystals, that object from fabric remnants, and how was this shape formed? Form becomes more important than function, and sometimes there is none.

Modern craftsmen explore material properties, experiment with form, reach for innovative techniques or create original ones. This takes time, is labor-intensive, and is often difficult - it takes many attempts to achieve the desired effect. All this is lined with anxiety. About the result of this engaging work. And also about its reception. Will anyone appreciate the experimentation with the material and the search for an unobvious form? Will the audience recognize the value of craftsmanship and be willing to pay for it? For whom and why do we create?

Are we now craftsmen, designers or artists? In the 1990s, creative craftsmanship was in retreat. The market was flooded with products from abroad. Local manufacturing was losing out to mass production. Small craft factories began to disappear from city centers. There was also a gap in the continuity of education of craftsmen, which was acutely felt by artists born in the 1980s and 1990s. They had no masters from whom they could learn, so they came to everything by themselves through trial and error.

The artisans whose works are presented in the exhibition are trying to redefine craftsmanship. To chart a new path. Which way? Where to? How? The “nie/pokój” exhibition is a story of contemporary craftsmanship told through objects. A story about experimentation with material and form, which does not exclude respect for tradition. And about the restlessness that, like a shadow, follows the creators.”

Ewa Pluty

Creators: Anna Bera, Kalina Bańka-Kulka, Monika Dąbrowska-Picewicz, Katarzyna Harasym, Huba, Olga Milczyńska, Aleksander Oniszh, P55 Mirrors, Monika Patuszyńska, REST (Julia Piekarska), Beata Szczepaniak, Arkadiusz Szwed, Jakub Święcicki, Robert Wieczorek, Magdalena Zarychta

Curator: Olga Milczynska

Okno na Kulture Gallery, Krakowskie Przedmieście 17, Warsaw May 29 - June 30, 2024

Organizer: Nów. New Craft Poland, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 

Media patronage: LABEL and MINT Magazine

Photos: Marta Pruska