Exhibition “Looking Through Objects” at the Design Museum Brussels

Looking Through Objects: Women in Contemporary Polish Design – a research project exploring women’s contribution to change through design and creative practices. The project includes a touring exhibition, lecture series, talks and interviews organized in different locations across Poland, UK, Belgium and the Baltics.

Exhibition: Looking Through Objects
Design Museum Brussels
9 May - 28 September 2025

Curators: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, Gian Luca Amadei, Dario Lombardi

Curatorial Statement:
The narrative of Looking Through Objects focuses on women, contemporary Polish designers. The starting point is a curated selection of design objects, which offer an insight into the ongoing transformations in Poland. We focused on sixteen female designers and objects they designed. We wanted to understand their influence and contribution to change by highlighting their approach to thinking and processes. We met each of them several times to discuss their inspirations and individual strategies as well as approaches to materials. The multitude of creative visions and ways of practising design proves that art, craft and technology, which we so readily compartmentalize from each other, are actually combined and may coexist in a single project. As recently as fifteen years ago, Poland was still a popular subcontractor for global brands rather than a design brand. Today, it is a strategic design and business partner that stands out with its original craftsmanship, design quality, and reasonable prices.

Design is a catalyst for art, crafts and industry, while simultaneously expressing the female authors’ individual creative choices. From this vantage point, it reflects cultural, societal and economic changes happening over time. During the last decade, insight and holistic thinking have become the key values in design, replacing the spectacular, short-term trends of the past.

Active and independent women designers have played an increasingly significant role in this transformation.

Looking Through Objects is a collaboration between Design Museum Brussels, Polish Institute Brussels, SWPS University and Royal College of Art, and in partnership with Disegno Journal.

Organised by the Polish Institute Brussels as part of the cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2025.