For the harbor city's festival in 2013, the local will find itself on the borderline with the mainstream and the fashionable from Poland and the rest of the world. The 6th edition of Gdynia Design Days is largely co-created by the regional design environment. Paweł Pomorski from MALAFOR studio has been assisting in creating the festival programme, as well as curated the main exhibition – On the Borderline / Na Styku. He has invited prominent designers from all over Poland to participate in the show. Izabela Kotkowska, Gdynia Design Days coordinator, says,
This year, we are very local, maritime and Pomeranian. We are going to present two exhibitions conceived with our region in mind. The prototypes created for the main exhibition will surely help us in finding another perspective on the meeting point of the sea and the land, as well as our everyday life. The majority of the exhibitions are taking place on the grounds of the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park. I strongly recommend making these few short steps.
The opening party will take place on the 5th of July and will feature a guest performance by Wojtek Mazolewski, whose piece is also shown in the exhibition Contemporary Improvisations / Współczesne Improwizacje.
Design Terminal - Heart of the Festival
After a two-year pause caused by the renovation of the Music Theatre, the Design Terminal is finding its way back to Plac Grunwaldzki, or Grunwaldzki Square. The multi-storey structure will include exhibition, lecture and workshop rooms, multimedia zone, food area, bookshop and a holiday relaxation area. The Design Terminal will also host the exhibition Contemporary Improvisations, which raises the question about creative potential of the Pomeranian designers and producers. The venue design was conceived by the group TABANDA - Megi Malinowska, Filip Ludka and Tomasz Kempa.
During the two days of the festival, the Baltic Fashion Business Cooperation Event is going to take place – it comprises a discussion panel, a workshop and a fashion show. The participants of this gathering of designers and producers from the Baltic region will have an opportunity to establish an open dialogue and engage in a productive exchange on the subject of design industry in general and the prospects for local, national and international cooperation.
Project Market, a design marketplace, is an opportunity to meet young producers and creators. For 2013, the designers will be able to not only present ready products, but also the sneak previews of final objects or services.
Exhibitions at the Science and Technology Park
The Pomeranian Science and Technology Park will be the venue for the main festival exhibition, On the Borderline. Its curators, Agata Kulik-Pomorska and Paweł Pomorski from MALAFOR, expand on the idea of design as an activity on the borderlines: of art and industry, mass production and uniqueness, standardization and innovation, popularity and distinctiveness. Six design groups from all over Poland – Bartosz Mucha / POOR DESIGN, Jakub Gołębiewski, Paweł Grobelny, Paulina Krauza & Jacek Ryń / RAZY 2, Katarzyna Sokołowska & Wojciech Sokołowski / SOKKA – have all prepared projects dedicated to the host region of Gdynia Design Days.
The exhibition Things Beautiful and Wise / Rzeczy Piękne i Mądre will consist of works by young designers from Poland and abroad. Ksenia Piątkowska, the curator, has ventured on a search for innovation among student works. Young designers more frequently tend to put forward objects and designs that respond to contemporary problems in a nonorthodox way – therefore, this year’s GDD edition will feature the most interesting projects made by students from various art and technological universities. Some of the projects are already in the process of professional realization.
This year will be the first time we will have the opportunity to see diploma works by students from the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts at the Festival. The art school will open its door to the public and show the favourites from the Faculty of Interior Architecture and Design. We will be able to see pieces by young designers, who work on the verge of professional and academic fields. The projects on display have been selected from all of the BA and MA degree works – the result is a collection of the most creative, slightly wild, cutting edge, cunning and stylish designs that emerge at the Gdańsk Academy. The exhibition is displayed in a space prepared by three students from the 360 º Sztuki / 360 Degrees of Art academic society.
Another highlight will be the second edition of the Gdynia Field Workshop / Gdyński Plener Projektowy. Last year, designers worked towards rearranging the old heat exchange room in Gdynia Chylonia into a Creative Youth Centre / Centrum Kreatywności Młodzieży. This time round, the curator Piotr Mikołajczak will motivate the participants of the workshop to work around the meeting point of land and water. The project will evolve around objects dedicated for use both on the coastal waters as well as on the beach. The proposed models, constructed out of inexpensive, light, and widely available materials, will be tested on the Gdynia beach.
Shopwindow Exhibitions
This year will mark the initial edition of the exhibition In the Shopwindows / W witrynach. This part of the festival will present young designers who break new grounds in thinking about an object. The motto of this year’s festival is reflected in the locations of the displays – the shopwindows in Świętojańska Street are placed on the border of public and private sphere. The objects that are contained in them will, in turn, be a manifestation of an approach between design and activism.
Following the Path of Modernism
Throughout the days of the festival the organizers are also inviting us to take part in guided walks of the city’s modernist architecture – they will be following the path of the oldest and most interesting architectural highlights of Gdynia.
Gdynia Design Days
5th-14th of July 2013 (exhibitions open until the 31st of July)
Organizer: Centrum Designu Gdynia (Gdynia Design Centre)
Source: press materials, ed. AS, 4.07.2013 translated with edits by AM