Until July 17, in the Designers' Hall of the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw, you can see an exhibition of works by Pawel Jasiewicz, a designer active on the borderline between design and art, creating mainly wooden furniture and interior design elements, as well as projects dedicated to children. The exhibition is curated by Jakub Szczęsny.
The exhibition "Games and Plays" is a summary of Jasiewicz's fifteen years of activity, during which time he had the opportunity to work and draw inspiration while living on three continents - Europe, Australia and Asia.
His path to Warsaw's Faculty of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he lectures and teaches design, and to the Faculty of Wood Technology at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, where he taught design, led from the Maritime Technical School in Kolobrzeg and theTechnical University in Koszalin, through Buckinghamshire New University and a scholarship at Finland's Seinajoki Politechnik, to residencies in Poland, Finland, Norway, Australia, Turkey and Japan. It should be added here that residency projects are usually watershed moments in Pawel's work, which is especially evident from the set of motifs and inspirations of Japan. In parallel, for years Paul has been successfully implementing his ideas outside the walls of universities and art galleries. Firstly, thanks to his cooperation with other designers - once with the Kompott group, the Touch Ideas team (with which he won the Red Dot award in 2011 for the packaging of Łomża beer), Jarosław Hulbój, Aleksandra Zając, or with me, as he has already made four objects for houses and interiors I designed. Secondly, Pawel's success is due to successful projects and collaborations of an educational nature [...]," adds Jakub Szczęsny.
The exhibition "Games and Games" is a summary of Jasiewicz's fifteen years of activity
photo: Cezary Koczwarski
Jasiewicz has worked with, among others, the Ikea brand, Tatra National Park, Ujazdowski Castle, Cieszyn Castle, the Museum of Prague, the Manggha Museum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland or the Greenpeace organization, for which he created one hundred hotels for wild pollinators - bees (mason bees and porcupines) and other insects.
Paul's favorite material is wood. This has been the case since the day he stepped out onto the upper deck of a freighter off the coast of Sweden and saw a damp and fragrant spruce forest stretching along the side. Since that daze, the former senior sailor Jasiewicz has been consistently involved in designing, shaping and learning about wood in all forms. Wood as heavy as a wet larch trunk and as paper-thin as a cedar veneer, woods as native and as exotic as Australian wandoo," writes the exhibition curator.
The designer's favorite material is wood
photo: Cezary Koczwarski
The exhibition shows the designer's fascination with wood - on display are, among others, Hani lamps made of flexible and light-permeable cedar veneer, the Animals series made of cedar wood with shapes inspired by carps and herons, the pine Birds of Weird prepared for the Cieszyn Castle and theWarsaw's Museum of Prague, Whales made of ash wood and steel tubes, the Cutty Sark ash table with the joint of the legs pressed into a special notch between the top and side slats, or the beech mirror made in the Turkish technique of the 11th century Kundekari. You can also see Tatra larch blocks created for the Tatra National Park as part of the "Shelter" project, which allow you to combine silhouettes of Tatra animals, as well as blocks for building palaces and a set of upholstered toys for the children's playroom prepared at the invitation of the Chancellery of the President of Poland.
The exhibition is both a summary of his past activities, especially objects related to landmarks usually resulting from travel, and an indication of new directions and interests. It gives us a unique opportunity to penetrate inside Jasiewicz's cerebrum, in which something is still bubbling and from which impulses rush to the strong hands of the artist/designer/tinkerer, or simply the creator.
It's time to take advantage, ladies and gentlemen! - invites the curator.
