Zachęta Project Room

curator: Magda Kardasz
co-operation: Pola Gadowska

Archive of Imaginary Objects is an institution dedicated to writing an alternative history of Polish design. Its aim is to discover designers whose creations sought to address the problems faced by marginalised people in Poland in the 20th century.

The exhibition highlighted projects aimed at three marginalised groups: residents of impoverished districts in Gdynia, women who migrated from rural areas to cities in search of work during the inter-war period, and people living near the Nowa Huta complex during the People’s Republic of Poland era. The selection of these groups was not arbitrary. The key to their selection was the history of Polish design, which has so far only superficially dealt with the social history of our country. The themes explored by the Archive can serve as a counter-narrative to the history of Gdynian modernism, folk art-inspired creations and furniture projects from the communist era. We hope that the dominant narrative of design in Poland will soon be expanded to include the stories of socially engaged designers.

Szymon Zakrzewski is a designer, curator and PhD student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He uses his design knowledge and skills to articulate issues that seek to broaden the public sphere. In the past, his work has explored themes such as education and socio-economic inequalities. He is currently focusing on the creation of design fiction. As part of his doctoral research, he is writing an alternative history of Polish design, incorporating the stories of excluded groups in 20th century Poland. He tries to imagine what the history of Polish design would look like if it responded to the needs of the least privileged groups. Based on authentic problems of the marginalised, he creates fictional implementations and writes biographies of designers who could have been their authors. Writing an alternative history of events here is not an attempt to reclaim the past, but an attempt to find unrealised potential in past events.

^{foto: Mieczysław Góra, kotwica, fot. S. Nowak}