Great news from London! The Polish Pavilion won a medal at the 5th London Design Biennale for the exhibition "Records of Waiting" created by Jakub Gawkowski, Monika Rosińska and Maciej Siuda. Congratulations!
The exhibition "Records of Waiting" at the London Design Biennale 2025
Photo: Kuba Celej | © Adam Mickiewicz Institute
The team won an honorable mention for the most inspiring interpretation of this year's event theme, "Surface Reflections". The slogan proposed by the artistic director - British designer and artist Samuel Ross - refers to the complexity of human experience - internal experiences and external influences. How did the Polish team's proposal fit into this theme?
The exhibition "Records of Waiting" at the London Design Biennale 2025
photo: Kuba Celej | © Adam Mickiewicz Institute
In their project, the curators drew on the highland tradition of woodcarving. Through hand-carved ornaments, they show the elusive, sometimes very difficult experience of the passage of time. The time we spend waiting - for rain during a drought, for a green light in traffic, for a doctor's appointment, for a loan repayment, for a decision, for relief from pain.
We all wait, but waiting is not always a choice. It is the state and economic structures that decide who must wait - and for how long. Wanting to show waiting not as idleness, but as an important social problem and a deeply personal experience, we juxtaposed two points of view. The first is based on data - numbers depicting systemic queues: for documents, permits, appointments. The second is the voice of the individual - personal stories full of emotions: frustration, weariness, anxiety, resignation, but also hope. Each part of the installation, shaped by the hands of craftsmen, teachers and schoolchildren in Zakopane, uses detailed ornamental patterns to reflect the duration and intensity of these scenarios, creating an ornate landscape of our waiting society
- explain the curators.
The ornaments presented at the exhibition were created by: Józef Bukowski, Anna Bukowska, Wojciech Bachleda-Dorcarz, Magdalena Bilczewska-Wiśniewska, Jan Kassowski, Michał Kassowski, Szymon Kassowski, Stanisław Kośmiński, Wojciech Łacek, Andrzej Mrowca, Marcin Rząsa, Franciszek Rząsa, as well as students of the Antoni Kenar State High School of Fine Arts in Zakopane and the Dr Władysław Matlakowski Building School in Zakopane.
The exhibition "Records of Waiting" at the London Design Biennale 2025
photo: Kuba Celej | © Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Polish tradition has extraordinary power, and the way we interpret it builds our identity. This exhibition combines traditional craftsmanship with current, social commentary in a very moving way. It shows how ancient forms of expression - rooted in local culture - can today tell stories about global challenges: about inequality, about time that doesn't flow the same for everyone, and about the experiences that shape our daily lives
- says Hanna Wroblewska, Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Poland.
The exhibition, organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, can be seen until June 29, 2025, during the London Design Biennale at Somerset House.
For Maciej Siuda, one of the curators of the London exhibition, this is the second international exhibition at the Biennale this year - the exhibition he co-curated, "Lars and Penates. On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture" can be seen at the Polish Pavilion in Venice.
This is also not the first success of the Polish Pavilion at the London Biennale - in the previous edition, in 2023, a medal for contribution to the event was awarded to the exhibition "Poetics of Necessity" by Zofia Jaworowska, Michal Sikorski and Petro Vladimirov.
