Just a Thing

In September 2011, the Maison&Objet international trade fair in Paris will present 10 new works by 10 young Polish designers. The exhibition, titled JUST A THING, will feature the latest projects by Aze design, Beton, Pawel Grobelny, Krystian Kwiecinski, Lapolka, Malafor, Bartosz Mucha, Piotr Stolarski, Arek Wolski and Lukasz Wysoczynski.

The exhibition is curated by Agnieszka Jacobson Cielecka, an expert on Polish and global design and applied arts, and author of many design exhibitions. The organizers of the exhibition – the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola and the Polish Institute in Paris – successfully support and promote Polish design and designers abroad. The JUST A THING exhibition is the best example of this. It is worth noting that the exhibition was included in the cultural program of the Polish Presidency of the EU.

The theme of the JUST A THING exhibition is an ordinary object, seemingly boring and unattractive. However, such a seemingly trivial subject has unleashed enormous amounts of creativity, inspired designers to unusual solutions. The curator of the exhibition set the designers the task of designing any object that would fit into a plywood box with standard dimensions of 75x75x75 cm. Thus, the only design constraint was the size of the box.

“I invited 10 designers to participate in the project. They received the conditions that the object had to meet and a grant from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute to make a prototype. They were also given the theme and dimensions of the box in which the made prototype was to fit. Such a restriction was based on practical considerations – 10 objects packed in unified boxes create a collection that is easy to transport and display. With the slogan “an ordinary thing”, each designer had to cope on his own”. – explains Agnieszka Jacobson Cielecka – “What does ‘ordinary thing’ mean? After all, every designer strives to create a thing that is surprising, unique, escapes definitions – “extraordinary”. Can an ordinary thing be extraordinary? It turns out that yes, even though the designers have mostly enclosed ordinary objects in their boxes: seats (Wolski, Malafor), tables (Wysoczynski and Grobelny), lamps (Kwiecinski and Stolarski), dishes (Lapolka).

However, Malafor’s inflatable armchair defies all habits regarding seating furniture: immaterial and unstructured, it nevertheless fulfills its function. Wolski’s stool is a provocation, borrowing the form from the human body although non-literal, it puts us in an awkward position. In addition to the mundane purpose of the furniture, Wysoczynski responds to another need: storage – not only of objects in drawers, also of crippled, damaged and incomplete objects, burdened with memories.

Lapolka, Aze design and Concrete respond to the inflicted subject emotionally. In Lapolka’s case, inflatable glasses, used for playing rather than drinking, become a play on words: the literal meaning of “blowing” and the customary “glass.” Aze design, proposing to look through portraits of the past, admits the need to imagine oneself in other roles and other times. Concrete draws attention, surprises, raises a smile, teases. What is the ‘ordinary thing’ in the Concrete project?”

Some of the authors of the works presented at the exhibition are mature, well-known artists in Europe, such as Malafor, Aze Design, Beton and Pawel Grobelny, while others like Krystian Kwiecinski and Lukasz Wysoczynski are just at the beginning of their journey. All of them are talented designers whose works amaze with imagination, passion and humor, provoke, make us think about the role of design in our lives, prove that we can get surprising answers to simple questions.

The projects presented at the JUST A THING exhibition are a commentary on a recent publication by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw entitled “Out of the Ordinary. Polish Designers of the 20th Century,” substantively edited by Prof. Czeslawa Frejlich, on Polish design of the 20th century. The book and the exhibition are therefore an invitation to reflection and discussion about “ordinary and extraordinary” things, an attempt to seek a definition of “ordinariness” in design and to determine whether an object is a thing or something more… JUST A THING exhibition September 9 – 13, 2011, Maison&Objet Paris International Fair, Paris Nord Villepinte, www.maison-objet. com The JUST A THING exhibition was organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw (www.iam.pl and www.culture.pl), the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola (www.muzeum.stalowawola.pl) and the Polish Institute in Paris (www.institutpolonais.fr) as part of the Foreign Cultural Program of the Polish Presidency 2011.

The Foreign Cultural Program of the Polish Presidency 2011, under the motto I, CULTURE, is the largest program for promoting Polish culture abroad.

Therefore, from July to December 2011, not only in the European Union, but also abroad – a total of nearly 400 events will be presented in 10 capitals around the world. They will allow Poland to be known as a modern and unique country with a rich and creative contemporary culture – the creative hub of Europe.

EXHIBITION CURATOR AGNIESZKA JACOBSON-CIELECKA – curator of many exhibitions and journalist, expert and popularizer of contemporary design in Poland and abroad. Since 2008 artistic director and curator of exhibitions at the Łódź Design Festival (www.lodzdesign.com). She cooperates with many cultural institutions in Poland and abroad, organizing exhibitions of Polish and international design, including: “UNPOLISHED – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND” together with Paweł Grobelny (2009), ‘NATURAL RESOURCES OF POLISH DESIGN’ (2009), ‘POLSKA FOLK’ (2010), ‘MATERIA PRIMA’ (2010), ‘DZIECINADA’ (2010). He is also involved in the popularization of design and designers.

In 2000-2007, she was editor-in-chief of the Polish edition of Elle Decoration. Graduate of the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. Additional information; Joanna Łozińska, e-mail: Joanna.lozinska@prinfo.pl; Tel: +48 660 41 41 02