Łódź Design Festival 2019: award for AFA Katowice teacher

Justifying the jury's decision, Magdalena Gazur – curator of the ON the Table exhibition – emphasized the interesting form of interpretation and the associations in evokes. “I hope the project will develop,” added Gazur.

'My project is composed of several quotations,' said Bogdan Kosak while accepting the award. 'They are supposed to make us think what finds its way onto our tables, and what kind of responsibility we feel at the table. The time to reflect has come, which makes me really glad,' added Kosak.

The author talks about his work:

Dinner is followed by dessert, but sometimes by pills.
PO OBIEDZIE (AFTER DINNER) crockery: a 15-cm-diameter saucer and a small cup on a base, which at the same time serves as a container for small “supplements,” form a set which supports reflection on what eating has become.

The set is not meant just to satisfy the whim of a bored consumer, or to boost the profit of the manufacturer. First of all, it is a tool used in the search for a balance between need and pleasure. It is an attempt to draw attention to the reality that surrounds us, to the world of excess consumption, the absence of moderation and common sense. Fed with the products of the food industry, we ourselves become products excused from independent thinking.

The project was inspired by a story from the last century as told by Anna Maga. Her father, Józef Hertel, used the money he received from his parents as tram fare to school to buy crumbs at the confectionery. Therefore, the dessert plate was designed to accommodate a rum ball: the perfect dessert, made of crumbs and remains out of respect for work and food.

Bogdan Kosak
Born in Sumin in 1966, he graduated from the Secondary Ceramic School in Katowice. He defended his Bachelor's diploma at the Faculty of Glass and Ceramics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He designs porcelain products and creates ceramic sculptures, conducts workshops and seminars promoting traditional crafts and modern design in ceramics. In 1995, he founded Modelarnia Ceramiczna, an experimental studio. He teaches the modelling studio and applied ceramics at the AFA Katowice since 2012.

Winner of main awards of the Śląska Rzecz competitions (2006, 2011). His works are included in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Kraków, Silesian Museum in Katowice and Zamek Cieszyn.

Łódź Design Festival is the oldest design festival in Poland, devoted to industrial design, graphic design, architecture, crafts, service and interaction design. The festival aspires to be the most influential design event in Central and Eastern Europe.