Join us for a unique exhibition and a happening that explores our relationships with everyday objects—those items that often go unnoticed by design theorists yet play a significant role in countless Polish homes. Together, we will rediscover items such as a cherry pitter, a can opener, a wooden plate passed down from a great-grandmother, a Mercedes hubcap, or a father’s old shirt. Artists and designers from SWPS University in Kraków will show how even the most ordinary objects can carry emotions, memories, and siginificant meaning. The exhibition is part of the “Sztuka do rzeczy – Design w Krakowie 2025” festival.
Stories hidden in ordinary things
The exhibition, prepared by artists and designers from the SWPS University’s Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies in Kraków, explores the complex relationships people form with objects. The works on display span a variety of techniques and media—from paintings and spatial installations to animation and augmented reality.
We have chosen objects that design theorists tend to overlook and we are asking why they have been left out of design discussions. In doing so, we navigate between many contradictions—loss and gain, tenderness and indifference, past and future, memory and forgetting, progress and decline, emotion and logic, wholeness and fragmentation, permanence and fragility, function and nostalgia.
Anna Treska-Siwoń, Ph.D. / Assistant Professor
exhibition curator
The artifacts we present often bear traces of someone’s presence. They have been inherited, found, received, acquired, bought, used, restored, neglected, abandoned, or preserved. Each piece tells its own story—and those of the people who once owned them. They evoke emotions quite unlike those that accompany the purchase of something new and shiny. These objects rarely attract economic interest, and their materiality has little to do with futuristic technologies. You will not find them in design museums.
This exhibition aims to change that. We will restore the forgotten glory of life’s quiet companions—a cherry pitter, a Mercedes hubcap, a wooden plate from a great-grandmother, a can opener, or a father’s old shirt. We will offer an alternative history of design, one where “good design” means the objects used by most of humanity, rather than the latest innovations made for a privileged few in the Global North. We will bring everyday objects out of the shadows and onto the stage, letting them tell their stories.
Participating artists and designers:
- Wojciech Brzozowski – motion designer, compositing artist, animator, illustrator, painter, cartoonist.
- Ziemowit Kościelny – graphic designer specializing in visual identity, advertising, and packaging design, as well as book, album, and exhibition catalog design.
- Miłosz Kozioł – director, producer, editor, creative producer, screenwriter, copywriter, creator of generative video content.
- Professor Magdalena Pińczyńska – designer, interior architect; dean of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies in Kraków.
- Joanna Róg-Ociepka – painter and illustrator who also creates short animations, films, and site-specific art.
- Dr. Anna Treska-Siwoń – graphic designer.
Portrait of a whisk (or a ladle)
Join us for a unique experience during the opening—a happening by Have a Good Look collective (Joanna Róg-Ociepka and Dr. Anna Treska-Siwon) featuring SWPS University students. Bring along your favorite kitchen tool and, under the guidance of our artistic mentors, create a portrait that puts it in the spotlight. And here is the exciting part: the first six participants to join the happening will get an exclusive opportunity to order a custom portrait of their kitchen tool, crafted by our talented artists (works will be available for pickup after the exhibition). Didn’t have enough time to paint a portrait of your favorite spatula during the opening? No worries! We will be hosting the happening again on November 28 at 4:00 p.m.
Additionally, the opening event will feature a lecture by Dr. Kinga Blaschke (in Polish).
Zobacz zdjęcia z wernisażu
Photo: Ksawery Kołątaj
Photo: Justyna Fichte
Photo: Justyna Fichte
Photo: Kaja Sikora
Photo: Justyna Fichte
Photo: Agnieszka Janczy
Where:
SWPS University in Kraków, al. Jana Pawła II 39A
When:
Opening (includes a happening by Have a Good Look collective): November 18, 2025, 18:00
Exhibition: November 18–30, 2025 (Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00–18:00)
Happening by Have a Good Look collective: November 28, 2025, 16:00
Organizers