The project "Rooted design for routed living - alternative design strategies" is a partnership project between the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw and the Nordic Artists' Centre in Dale in western Norway. The first workshop under the project took place from 20 to 23 March this year at the Ujazdowski Castle, starting with an open seminar on innovative design strategies.
Watch video from the workshop
The open session had as its focus the use of natural and recycled materials and objects to provide novel, aesthetical and practical solutions to everyday problems. The aim of the project is to help improve the living and working conditions for artists visiting institutions for shorter periods of time as so-called resident artists. The Polish and Norwegian art centres will draw on each other`s experience in order to gain knowledge on the possibility of making their interiors more suited to the local circumstances.
The workshop was the first meeting of the designers, and was meant to be open and creative rather than producing practical solutions that could immediately be implemented. A selected group of eight persons, both Norwegians and Poles, will continue to work together in more targeted workshops and residencies at Ujazdowski and at Dale.
The project will be completed at the end of 2010, and will be presented through exhibitions organised at the Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw and at Nordic Artists' Centre in Dale. The Cultural Exchange Fund was established in 2007, with the objective of increasing social cohesion between Poland and the donor states through integration on the social plane. This happens chiefly by means of collaborative projects between entities in Poland and entities in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The donor states contribute €4 million to the fund.
Photo: Sidsel Bleken/NMFA