The competition for the design of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion, which will be presented at the fifth edition of the London Design Biennale in 2025, has been resolved! The winning concept entitled "Record of Waiting" was designed by Jakub Gawkowski, Monika Rosińska and Maciej Siuda.
The London Design Biennale is a biennial event held every two years at London's Somerset House. The organizers of the London Design Biennale aim to popularize the role that design plays in solving global problems that affect us all. As part of the event, individual countries present exhibitions that measure themselves against themes set by the organizers. During the five editions held since 2016, these have included Utopia by Design, Resonance and Design in the Age of Crisis. As announced by Dr. Samuel Ross, artistic director of next year's fifth edition of the biennial, the next theme will be encapsulated in the phrase Surface Reflections. Surface Reflections, as the slogan can be translated into Polish, poses the question of how personal stories influence artists and are reflected in their work.
Exhibition design competition for the Polish Pavilion at the London Design Biennale
The organization of the Polish exhibition for the fifth time is being handled by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, which at the end of May this year announced a competition for the exhibition design for the Polish Pavilion at the London Design Biennale in 2025. In response to the Institute's announcement, 17 works were submitted by July 15, which were evaluated by a jury consisting of: Olga Wysocka, director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and chairwoman of the commission, Victoria Broackes, director of the London Design Biennale, Ivan Blasi, curator of the Mies van der Rohe Award. Mies van der Rohe, Anja Radović, program director of the Ljubljana Design Biennale, Iwo Zmyślony, design anthropologist and lecturer, Aleksandra Kędziorek, art historian, curator and editor, and Barbara Krzeska, expert and manager at IAM.
The competition for the exhibition design for the Polish Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2025 has been settled - Jury of the competition
© Adam Mickiewicz Institute
time enchanted in wood
On July 25 of this year, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute announced that Poland will be represented at the fifth edition of the London Design Biennale by a pavilion with an exhibition titled "Record of Waiting." The exhibition will be curated by Jakub Gawkowski, a publicist, art critic and curator affiliated with the Museum of Art in Lodz, the research will be handled by Monika Rosińska, PhD in sociology at SWPS University, author of books on contemporary design, while Maciej Siuda, an architect and designer also collaborating with SWPS University, will be responsible for the design.
Maciej Siuda, designer of the award-winning concept, tells us about "Record of Waiting."
The exhibition is about the experience of waiting, using woodcarving ornamentation as a material record of time and a method of visualizing it. The project draws on the visual language of ornamentation rooted in Polish highland tradition to tell the story of the politics of waiting time and boredom, showing their current and historical socio-political significance.
Victoria Broackes, director of the London Design Biennale and member of the Competition Committee, comments on the selected work:
"Record of Waiting is a work that, by depicting the creation of woodcarving ornaments as a method of measuring time, fits perfectly with the theme of the biennale. It alludes to the well-known experience of waiting and encourages reflection on the surface of events. Also fascinating and little known is the scientific and historical context of the project and the language of ornament depicted in it - graphic, but also material and beautiful. At a time when having free time, or even boredom, is becoming a luxury for many, this gives us rich material for reflection. The work is very Polish, but also universal, which makes it a perfect fit for an international biennial.
Polish Pavilion with successes
Last year, the Polish Pavilion presented an exhibition titled "Poetics of Necessity," for which the Polish-Ukrainian team consisting of Zofia Jaworowska, Michal Sikorski and Petro Vladimirovwas responsible. The exhibition centered around the theme of rebuilding Ukraine after the Russian onslaught was awarded the first prize in the category "The most outstanding overall contribution" by the biennial organizers. We congratulate the winners of this year's exhibition design competition and keep our fingers crossed for similar success at the fifth edition of the London Design Biennale, which opens on June 5, 2025.
