The Dictionary of Ukrainian loanwords as interpreted by Ukrainian and Polish illustrators | Exhibition Opening

Image: Dawid Ryski “Koromyslo” / from the archives of Łódź Design Festival 2022

“The Dictionary of Ukrainian loanwords as interpreted by Ukrainian and Polish illustrators” is an artistic and educational project developed through a partnership between the City Art Gallery in Łódź and the Łódź Design Festival. “The Dictionary” was created using Polish words of Ukrainian origin. These loanwords inspired the artists and allowed them to illustrate how the language and culture of both nations have embedded and influenced one another.

 About

The artists who were commissioned to create the illustrations are Art Studio Agrafka, Bovska, Oleg Gryshchenko, Gosia Herba, Jan Kallwejt, Mari Kinovych, Hania Kmieć, Ola Niepsuj, Dawid Ryski, Vadym Solowski, Sophia Suliy, and Paweł Szlotawa. They were chosen for their mastered grasp of artistic techniques, stylistic variety, originality, and concise expression that is open to interpretation.

It is important to recognise the remarkable nature of this edition of the “Dictionary”, a result of works displayed by graphic designers and illustrators from both Poland and Ukraine that infer and portray their experience in life-threatening situations and the manifestations of brutal reality when viewed from a distance. Some of the words visually interpreted by the artists are emotionally charged.

Many words featured as shown in  “The Dictionary of Ukrainian loanwords” have deep and illuminating definitions with captivating stories. That’s why this exhibition is perfect for those who want to broaden their knowledge about the language, culture, tradition, and history of Ukraine.

 Given the current, profoundly devastating events across our eastern border, the exhibition allows the opportunity to engage on difficult topics about our world where acts as heinous as war are likely to occur.

Adriana Usarek (MGS – City Art Gallery) and Michał Piernikowski (Łódź Design Festival) are the exhibiton’s curators, and Beata Świerkowska-Jóźwiak is responsible for visual branding. The project was developed for Łódź Design Festival 2022 in cooperation with the City Art Gallery in Łódź.

Łódź Design Festival (LDF), organised since 2007 by Łódź Art Center foundation, is an event that promotes the development of Poland’s creative industries and attracts both sector leaders and audiences not professionally related to design. LDF presents an annual review of global design trends, concepts, and futuristic visions. The festival also provides an open platform for companies and designers to share and exchange their experiences. It attempts to discover and promote emerging talents and present design trends and developments to a wider audience. The Festival has a long-standing partnership with the City Art Gallery in Łódź, and since 2019 has continued an artistic and educational project that is centred on the Łódź dialect, specifically words unique to Łódź. This has resulted in projects like “Łódź vernacular phrases as interpreted by Polish illustrators” (2019), “The dictionary of contemporary Łódź phrases” (2020), and “The Dictionary of Łódź vernacular”. This year’s edition of “The Dictionary” portrays current affairs, thus particular words and artistic messages gain very special meanings.

The exhibition will be accompanied by workshops and meetings will illustrators.

The presentation of the exhibition “The dictionary of Ukrainian loanwords as interpreted by Ukrainian and Polish illustrators” held in Lublin is part of the conference “Culture-City-Change” organised as part of the “|Trans-making” project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement N°734855.

Details

Date: 22 September – 22 October, 10.00-17.00

Venue: Workshops of culture in Lublin, Grodza 7  – ground floor

Organisers: Workshops of Culture, Łódź Design Festival, The City Art Gallery in Łódź.
Curators: Adriana Usarek, Michał Piernikowski

Artists: Art Studio Agrafka, Bovska, Oleg Gryshchenko, Gosia Herba, Jan Kallwejt, Mari Kinovych, Hania Kmieć, Ola Niepsuj, Dawid Ryski, Vadym Solowski, Sophia Suliy oraz Paweł Szlotawa

Visual branding: Beata Świerkowska-Jóźwiak

Words: vataha, bohomaz, merezhka, khmara, steppe, maidan, kuren, hopak, koromyslo, bandura, ohyda, sharovary.

Admission free