“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 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 will not be 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. The Icelandic edition of the exhibition also includes local artists whose designs indicate similar inspirations with the sea, though not the Baltic.

This way of authorial presentation allows to discover, difficult to define, but nevertheless legible 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 for them a kind of common language that makes less and more unfamiliar neighbors close to each other.

In Reykjavík, the exhibition will be expanded to include objects from non-Baltic Iceland, which explains the PLUS added to the exhibition title. They, too, will be woven into the fabric of the exhibition, showing in passing that identity associated with the sea is somehow a universal phenomenon.

Designers, participating in the exhibition: Hudgetta (IS), Dögg Design (IS), Helga Mogensen (IS), Helha Björg (IS), By Bibi (IS), Thórunn Árnadóttir (IS), Margrét Guðnadóttir (IS), Alicja Patanowska (PL), Anki Gneib (SE), Anna Bera (PL), Anne Lorenz (DE), Annike Laigo (EE), Audrone Drungilaite (LT), Chmara Rosinke (PL/AT), Chudy and Grase (LV/DE), Com-pa-ny (FI), Fredrik Paulsen (SE), Grynasz Studio (PL), Hanna Krueger (DE), Iina Vuorivirta (FI), Johanna Tammsalu (EE), Jonas Edvard (DK), Justyna Poplawska (PL/DK), Karin Carlander (DK), Kosmos Project (PL), Lisa Hilland (SE), Lith Lith Lundin (SE), Lucas Dahlen (SE), Maija Puoskari (FI), Malafor (PL), Mara Skujeniece (LV), Mare Kelpman (EE), Maria Kristofersson (SE), Marija Puipaitė (LT), Meike Harde (DE), Mikko Laakkonen (FI), Milena Krais (DE), Modus Design (PL), Monica Foster (SE), Olga Bielawska (PL/DE), Pia Wustenberg (FI/DE), Petra Lilja (SE), Raili Keiv (EE), Rikke Frost (DK), Sampling (LV), Sebastian Jansson (FI), Silvia Knueppel (DE), Silvija Juozelskytė (LT), Studio Fem (DK), Stoft Studio (SE), Toivo Raidmets (EE), Variant Studio (LV), 1+1+1 Nordic Mash-Up (SE/FI/IS).

Curator: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka

Organizer: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Co-organizer: Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Partners: The Nordic House, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Reykjavik, Gdynia City Museum, Gdynia Design Center – Pomeranian Science and Technology Park

Coordination: Dr. Magdalena Bąk-Wołoszyn tel. 15 8448556, e-mail: mbakwoloszyn@muzeum.stalowawola.pl 

The exhibition has been presented so far:

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

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

24.01-26.02.2017 Latvian National Museum Of Art/Museum Of Decorative Arts And Design, Riga (Latvia).

Planned editions:

Lithuanian Design Week, May 2017

Gdynia Design Days, Gdynia City Museum, 01.07 – 03.09.2017