July 1, 2023 marks the beginning of Gdynia Design Days – a true celebration of Polish design. The festival will be inaugurated by the opening of an exhibition of Jakub Szczęsny’s work at the Museum of the City of Gdynia, which is the ninth installment of the “Polish Projects Polish Designers” series. In his works prepared especially for the Gdynia exhibition, Szczęsny uses plywood, and the installations made of it take viewers back to their childhood in a way that is sentimental for the author. The exhibition is partnered by Paged, one of the largest plywood manufacturers in Europe.
Szczęsny’s exhibition will show the intertwining of architecture and design. Thanks to the unusual arrangement, visitors will be able to admire the combination of the unique Keret House and repetitive modular micro-houses. Szczęsny’s designs are a performance in public space, drawing attention to the social dimension of design.
– I deeply believe that design can be for everyone. My inspiration for creating this installation was a sentimental return to childhood, a kind of retrospective, as well as a reference to building something completely new from blocks. It was these blocks that once gave me a sense of creating my own world and taught me the creativity of design and creation – says Jakub Szczęsny, designer and artistic director at Paged Meble. – I used plywood as a medium for this purpose. It is an amazing material that gives you the freedom to shape all kinds of things and objects, including art. It ranks somewhere between paper, due to its thinness, and wood, due to its incredible strength. In my opinion, it is a very versatile medium, and at the same time diverse, which fits perfectly into the character of the entire exhibition,” adds Szczęsny.
The form and material of Jakub Szczęsny’s installations are a source of inspiration for visitors and give them space to interact with his work. The designer not only focuses on creative solutions that have a social and functional dimension, but also pays great attention to responsible design and giving objects a second life. The project itself thus becomes a framework for much broader, socially responsible activities.
– A museum is people, and design is a kind of tool for social integration. That is why, in preparation for this year’s edition of the exhibition, we will be working with visitors to find answers to questions about the role of design and how it affects each of us. Jakub Szczęsny’s designs are a unique opportunity for us to discuss this topic and broaden our horizons in terms of how we perceive design. We cordially invite you to the exhibition, which will be open from July 1st throughout the year, says Anna Śliwa, curator of the exhibition “Jakub Szczęsny. Polish Designs, Polish Designers” and head of the Art Department at the Museum of the City of Gdynia.
The exhibition will also feature part of this year’s latest Paged Alter Ego 2023 collection, which premiered at the interior design fair in Milan. The Plato table and Totem box are part of the functional design created by Jakub Szczęsny for the collection. The exhibition will be complemented by multimedia elements, including a film about the designer.
Information about events:
The exhibition will be on display at the Museum of the City of Gdynia from July 2, 2023, to June 2, 2024.
Media contact:
Magdalena Kicińska
Communications Manager at Paged Wood
+48 725 520 874
About Paged:
Founded over 90 years ago, Paged is currently one of the five largest plywood manufacturers and the third largest wooden chair manufacturer in the European Union. It employs over 2,000 people and has a total of seven production plants in Poland and Estonia. It offers innovative solutions and products that are used in many industries, such as interior design and furnishing, construction, transport, and packaging in nearly 80 markets around the world.
Since 2019, Paged has been developing and implementing technological and product innovations based on the unique competences of its own research and development center, Paged LabTech.
Paged’s subsidiaries: Paged Pisz, Paged Morąg, Paged Eesti, Paged Trade, Paged Meble, Paged LabTech, Paged Deutschland, and BUK Ltd. are part of the Thumos Group, a private Polish industrial and investment consortium.