Join us for the next lecture in the Bydgoszcz Academy of Art series.
Can design be for everyone? Or is this just utopia? The realisations by Jakub Szczęsny, designer, architect and illustrator, prove that design has the power to unite, to work across divides. During the lecture, I will talk about how architecture intersects with design and what interesting things can be created at their meeting point. I will present Jakub Szczęsny’s most interesting projects, from the micro-homes, particularly popular during the pandemic, through the unique, iconic Keret House, to installations in public space, which are intended as architecture in action, a kind of performance. All this to show the social dimension of design.
I will also draw attention to combination of design with fun, humour and surprise, which are important to Jakub Szczęsny and turn out to be the common denominator of all his realisations. The work of an architect and designer does not have to be deadly serious after all.
I am keen to show that a well-designed public space acts as a frame that creates a social situation, encourages users to interact, and ties them to their immediate surroundings. It makes the case that ‘common’ does not mean ‘nobody’s.’ It teaches interaction and integrates instead of alienating. I hope you will find focusing on how design ‘works’ in public spaces particularly intriguing. In the end, it affects each and every one of us. Design is not socially indifferent.
Anna Śliwa – doctor, art historian and literary scholar, certified curator. Graduate of the University of Gdańsk. She completed postgraduate studies in cultural managers at the Warsaw School of Economics. She has been working at the Museum of the City of Gdynia since 2007, and has headed the Art Department since 2014. Curator and co-author of numerous exhibitions related to Pomeranian art, weaving miniatures, design and architecture. The exhibition she co-curated, “Glass, metal, detail. Gdynia’s architecture in detail” won first place in the 2016 Historic Event of the Year competition and an honourable mention in the 2017 Sybilla competition. In 2018, she was nominated for the Pomorskie Sztormy award for the exhibition “Oskar Zięta. Polish Projects Polish Designers” in the ‘Discovery of the Year’ and ‘Event of the Year’ categories. The catalogue for this exhibition won an Honorary Award in the 58th Most Beautiful Books of the Year 2017 competition of the Polish Society of Book Publishers, and was a finalist in the Good Design 2019 competition. Author of a book on visual perception in the work of Miron Bialoszewski. Vice-President of the Gdańsk Branch of the Association of Art Historians.
15.10.2025, 6pm
20 Gdańska St.
free entrance
