Guided tour of the exhibition Looking Through Objects: Women in Contemporary Polish Design with Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and Gian Luca Amadei, curators.

About the curators:

Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka is a design curator with a background in visual arts. She is interested in how local context influences design identities. She is also a columnist, event organiser, and jury member of design competitions. Agnieszka is the dean of the Faculty of Design at SWPS University in Warsaw. Previously, she was the artistic director of the Łódź Design Festival and the launching editor-in-chief at Elle Decoration Poland.

Gian Luca Amadei is an architectural historian, researcher and curator. His interests intersect between architecture history, urban planning, sociology and cultural context. Gian Luca is an advocate of life-long learning and a Lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London. He is also the author of the books: Discovering Women in Polish Design (2009) and Victorian Cemeteries and the Suburbs of London (2022).

The Looking Through Objects: Women in Contemporary Polish Design presents the profiles of 16 Polish female designers working at the intersection of product design, collector’s design, handicraft and art. The project aims to create a space for discussion on the role of women in design. Although the exhibition narrative focuses on women, it is no coincidence that it is not women but objects that play a central role in the exhibition title. It is the everyday things that mirror social and economic change. They tell the story of how we live, think and what we surround ourselves with in our homes. They demonstrate innovative thinking, reveal design processes and approaches to production and craftsmanship. Looking Through Objects allows us to see it from the perspective of women working at the intersection of industrial design, collector’s design, craft and art. The objects were selected without defining how they were made, assuming that design understood as everyday objects would best illustrate not only the changes, but also the here and now of Polish design.

Practical information:
Where: Design Museum Brussels
When: 10.05.2025 at 11:15am
Duration: 1h
Language: EN
Price: The guided tour is included in the price of the ticket (to buy on site)
Partner: Polish Institute Brussels
Information: info@designmuseum.brussels / 02 669 49 21
Registration

Ehibition: Looking Through Objects. Women in Contemporary Polish Design
from 9 May to 28 September 2025 
Design Museum Brussels
Place de Belgique 1,  1020 Brussels

Organiser: Design Museum Brussels and Polish Institute Brussels
Partners: SWPS University in Warsaw, Royal College of Art in London, National Museum in Gdańsk
Curators: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, Gian Luca Amadei, Dario Lombardi


The exhibition is organised as an accompanying event of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union.