About the exhibition
The ceramics collection at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw comprises over 6,000 objects, making it one of the largest in the country. The exhibition features both vessels for daily use produced in rural and small-town pottery workshops, as well as works created within the framework of “folk art” competitions.
The focal point of the exhibition is clay as a substance rooted in place. Its physical, chemical, and biological properties are the direct result of local conditions and human activity. The composition of the raw material, the method of extraction, and the purification and preparation processes—all these elements determine the further course of work with the material. Therefore, every object is inextricably linked to the place where the raw material originated, as well as to the time and the person who gave it form.
The ceramic works presented in the exhibition were created primarily after 1945 in the most important Polish pottery centers, such as Stary Sącz, Medynia Głogowska, Urzędów, Łążek Ordynacki, Chałupki, Czarna Wieś Kościelna, Iłża, Bolimów, and Chmielno. Each of these places constituted a distinct bio-social network, in which local clay resources, craft traditions, and human creativity shaped the unique character of the items produced. Clay is not merely a background here, but an active participant in the process.
The properties of clay are discovered through physical contact. It is a material whose essence is understood primarily through touch. Soft, moist, and cool – it yields under the fingers while simultaneously offering resistance. Every gesture – modeling, centering, throwing, smoothing – leaves a mark. Only firing grants it hardness and durability, transforming it into a ceramic object. Ceramics is, on the one hand, the result of planning and shaping, and on the other, an experience perceived by the whole body: through touch, sight, and movement.
The exhibition is permanent, yet its layout will evolve. We intend for the rotation of objects to become a means of conducting an open, dynamic process of interpreting our collection.
Exhibition Accessibility
- Content available in Polish and English
- Audio description of all objects in Polish
- Information in Polish Sign Language
- The exhibition includes objects that can be touched
- Wide circulation paths and rest areas
- Texts in font sizes that ensure comfortable reading for a wide audience
The selection of content adapted for accessible formats was made through a consultation process, taking into account the perspectives of self-advocates.
People creating the exhibition
- Director of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw: Magdalena Wróblewska
- Project Coordinator: Kamila Smakulska
- Curator: Patryk Pawlaczyk
- Scenography: Studio Matosek / Niezgoda, Paulina Tyro-Niezgoda, Piotr Matosek
- Production: FERWOR
- Visual Identity: Kuba Maria Mazurkiewicz
- English Translation and Text Editing: Malwina Szymczak
- Editing and Proofreading: Agnieszka Kleszcz, Zofia Świrek
- Captions: Agnieszka Kleszcz
- Handling of Museum Objects: Anita Broda, Anna Wielechowska, Mariusz Pieńkowski, Monika Salamon, Paweł Sałata, Piotr Wojtarski
- Conservation Supervision: Anna Wielechowska-Olszak
- Object Digitization: Edward Koprowski, Krzysztof Towstjenko
- Accessibility: Magdalena Dąbrowska
- Production Coordination and Logistics: Marta Ancelewska
- Technical Team and Organizational Support: Marta Ancelewska, Kamila Końska, Maria Wodzińska, Mariusz Horoś, Marcin Kiersnowski, Łukasz Malinowski, Tomasz Rychter, Zenon Winnicki
- PR and Communication: Łukasz Gackowski, Jakub Nowociński, Przemysław Walczak
Organizator
