28 August / Friday

 

What is design, and how does it shape our everyday lives? Join us for an evening in which we explore icons of Polish design, discuss what ‘good form’ means in product design and how it responds to users’ needs. In the Gallery of Polish Design, you’ll find objects you may already know – the wall unit, LOT airline ephemera, wooden chairs in the Zakopane style – making this the perfect opportunity for relaxed conversation and discovering art from a new angle.
 

As every month, we’ve also put together a creative zone, a music zone, a bookshop event and a museum personality test. And to close the evening, come listen to vinyl records together in the gallery.

 

Join us! Museum Evening – every last Friday of the month!

 

PROGRAMME

 

5:00pm – 8:00pm

• Creative Zone: Live Screen Printing with Kwiaciarnia Grafiki / Main Hall

The live screen printing session has simple rules. You bring a light-coloured piece of fabric (the ink will be black). Together, using a squeegee and screen, we’ll print your item. ‘Remember – a new layer of ink can bring textiles back to life from the forgotten depths of your wardrobe. Don't buy, recycle!’ says Kwiaciarnia Grafiki. All materials provided – come and join us!

 

Kwiaciarnia Grafiki is a Warsaw studio that has been promoting screen printing culture for over a decade in the name of democratising access to art. Using manual printing techniques, they take commissions and produce their own designs, but above all they invite artists and creatives to share in the adventure of serigraphy. Their collaborators include Maurycy Gomulicki, Karol Radziszewski and Aleksandra Waliszewska. Behind Kwiaciarnia Grafiki are Marta Kwiatek – illustrator and screen printing studio manager at the School of Form – and Kwiatek – art worker, cyclist, fan of the Anthropocene.

 

• Q&A – Ask About Art / Gallery of Polish Design

Throughout the evening, NMW educators will be on hand inside the exhibition to share stories about selected works, answer your questions and invite you to share your own observations. Look out for educators wearing ZAPYTAJ MNIE (ASK ME) badges and discover the stories behind the icons of Polish design. Feel free to drop by at any point.

 

• Museum Personality Test: What Interior Style Suits You? / Main Hall

Which chair would you most like to sit in? Which best responds to your needs and expresses your personality? Answer a few questions and find out which interior style is closest to you!

 

• Music Zone with Soul Service / Main Hall

The Gallery of Polish Design is home to many objects from the 1960s and 1970s. DJ Zura from the Soul Service collective will be transporting us back to that era of bigbeat in the Music Zone.

 

NMW Main Hall & Gallery of Polish Design / admission with a museum ticket or temporary exhibition ticket / drop in at any time / no advance booking required

---

6:00pm

Design & Emotion / NMW Bookshop / event in Polish

Why do attractive tools and objects work better? Can surrounding ourselves with beautiful things make us happier? What makes ordinary, sometimes worthless things our most treasured possessions? Join us for an event centred on Don Norman’s book Emotional Design. Together with Helena Postawka-Lech from the Karakter publishing house, we’ll consider what our surroundings should look like in order to support our wellbeing. We’ll also discuss the different levels of design, the role of play in the design process, and the personality of objects.
 

NMW Bookshop / approx. 60 min / admission with a museum ticket / join at any time / no advance booking required

---

8:00pm 

Vinyl Listening Session with Unitra / Gallery of Polish Design & Gallery of Medieval Art / introduction in Polish

What does an instrument sound like when it’s also a work of design? Join us for a communal vinyl listening session in the Gallery of Medieval Art, where – surrounded by sculptures, altarpieces and paintings – we’ll hear music performed on extraordinary instruments: designed, built or radically transformed by the artists themselves.

In the spirit of the ‘In Good Form’ programme, this time we look at design not through the lens of furniture, objects or architecture, but through the tools used to make music. The instrument becomes not merely a means but a form in itself – the outcome of creative imagination, experiment and craft.
 

We’ll listen to excerpts from several records:

 

Radiating by the duo Gamut Inc, who for years have been making music with automated instruments (including pipe organs) while also designing and building their own machines, exploring their resonant possibilities.

The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas by Lukas de Clerck – a meditative story about a contemporary interpretation of the ancient aulos, an instrument born of a fascination with ancient techniques and modern design.

La Suez by Arthur Chambry, who draws on the tradition of medieval minstrels and performs original songs on instruments he builds himself, within the aesthetic of contemporary music.

XKatedral Anthology Series II, which includes Dies Irae (Live) by Maria W Horn for female vocal quartet, tuned glasses and synthesiser. The piece engages with the medieval Dies irae – one of the most recognisable liturgical chants, present for centuries in sacred music and European culture. Horn does not reconstruct the ancient chant but draws out its atmosphere and meanings, creating a meditation on memory, transience and sacred sound.
 

The records will be played on a turntable by the iconic Polish brand Unitra, whose equipment has earned its rightful place in the Gallery of Polish Design. Krzysztof Pietraszewski will introduce the selected recordings, the extraordinary instruments and their creators. Music, design and medieval art will come together in a shared space this evening, inviting us to listen attentively to form.
 

Krzysztof Pietraszewski – curator, cultural manager, executive producer, music journalist. Since 2016, he’s been the artistic director of the Sacrum Profanum new music festival. He has worked on programmes for numerous festivals, institutions, radio stations and music magazines across Poland. He currently works with Radio Kraków Kultura, where he presents the programme Muzykoteka, the RKK Live concert strand, and cultural conversations about music on Thursday mornings.
 

Permanent galleries / approx. 90 min / tickets priced 30 and 15 PLN, valid for NMW admission from 5:00pm and for the listening session, available online and at the box office from the Tuesday two weeks before the event / places limited