Roundabout Baltic in Ryga

“Roundabout Baltic” is a visual narrative of similarities and differences, a kind of emotional landscape built from everyday objects. The objects selected by the curator, through their form or structure, are strongly rooted not only in the material traditions and crafts characteristic of the region, but are visibly related to their surroundings, inscribed in the visual characteristics of the region.

The objects presented in the exhibition come from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany – however, they are not presented by country, but mixed together, arranged according to the themes outlined by the curator, because of the similarities and common features they share. Sometimes it will be the form, sometimes the material or color scheme, sometimes a persistently recurring motif, as if the designers, each in their own way, were solving the same task.

This way of authorial presentation makes it possible to discover, difficult to define but nevertheless clear, connectivity with the Baltic landscape, common formal borrowings and inspirations, which often were not a conscious effort of their creators. Through this deliberate display, design analogies present in the region will be shown, despite all the differences that divide us. Designers from Scandinavian, Nordic, Baltic, Slavic and Germanic countries look at the same Baltic Sea, which has become a kind of common language for them. In this way, less and more unfamiliar neighbors become close to each other.

http://www.roundaboutbaltic.pl/

Curator: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka

Organizer: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Co-organizer: Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Partners: National Museum of Latvia, Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riga, Museum of the City of Gdynia, Gdynia Design Center – Pomeranian Science and Technology Park

Coordination: Dr. Magdalena Bąk-Wołoszyn tel. 15 8448556, e-mail:

mbakwoloszyn@muzeum.stalowawola.pl

Previous editions:

08.10.2016-28.12.2016 Estonian Museum Of Applied Arts And Design, Tallinn (Estonia)

22.06-11.09.2016 Form/Design Center, Malmö (Sweden)