group exhibition — BINDEKUNST
At the beginning of the twentieth century, floristry ceased to be merely an intuitive domestic craft. Louise Riss — who lived at the Villa Tannenheim (Willa pod Jodłami) —published the influential handbook Die Blumenbindekunst (The Art of Flower Arrangement). In her work, she approached nature with the precision of both a sculptor and an engineer. She established principles of tension, proportion, and balance, introducing rigid armatures, frames, and stands into delicate floral compositions. Organic forms were framed within precise architectural structures. Published in 1893 in Berlin, the book was far more than a practical guide — it was a manual for taming chaos. A self-taught practitioner and researcher, Riss taught readers how to construct organic installations through geometry and physics, bringing the cool logic of supports, wire mesh, and metal frameworks into the seemingly effortless beauty of floral bouquets.
Her former home and a space for experimentation was Villa Tannenheim (Willa pod Jodłami) – a place where nature met the corset of architecture on a daily basis. The historic rotunda, added in the 1920s – a glazed winter garden enclosed within Neo-Rococo stucco ornamentation and Art Nouveau polychrome decoration – is, in essence, a spatial extension of the same idea: an architectural vessel created to frame, display, and discipline living flora.
For this year's edition of OBJEKT Summer Gallery, we translate this art of arranging from the realm of organic matter into the language of collectible design. At the centre of the historic rotunda, we install a contemporary counterpart to the florists' armature: a bespoke exhibition system designed by Jan Gliński. The works on view become a radical deconstruction of the vase — and of the very notion of the vessel itself. The sculptural forms presented here, crafted from glass, wood, ceramic, and aluminium; hollowed, bent, ruptured by organic processes, or reduced to the purity of gesture — enter into dialogue with Riss's legacy. If the pioneer of modern floristry sought to contain living nature within the discipline of vessels and frameworks, these objects reverse that logic. They assert themselves as autonomous sculptures, carrying within them the memory of the vessel — its function and its relationship to its surroundings — while reimagining it through a distinctly contemporary lens.
Artists:
Olaf Brzeski, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Formsophy, Maciej Gąsienica Giewont, Aleksander Glich, Jan Gliński, Grôpk, Hasik Design Studio & Stettin Jewellery, Jarosław Hulbój & Arkadiusz Szwed, Aleksandra Jakuć, Igor Jansen & Zuzanna Spaltabaka, Szymon Keller, Robert Marciniak, Mozi Studio, Monika Patuszyńska, Filomena Smoła, UAU Project, Aleksandra Zawistowska
Curator: Aleksandra Krasny
Assisting curator: Sebastian Stasiek vel Staszczyk
Set design: Jan Gliński
Illustration: Maria Milenko
Media partner: Vogue Polska Living
Partner: Gdańskie Nieruchomości
Supporting partners: Galilou, Perrier, Sezon, Cosentino
Past exhibition
group exhibition — BINDEKUNST
At the beginning of the twentieth century, floristry ceased to be merely an intuitive domestic craft. Louise Riss — who lived at the Villa Tannenheim (Willa pod Jodłami) —published the influential handbook Die Blumenbindekunst (The Art of Flower Arrangement). In her work, she approached nature with the precision of both a sculptor and an engineer. She established principles of tension, proportion, and balance, introducing rigid armatures, frames, and stands into delicate floral compositions. Organic forms were framed within precise architectural structures. Published in 1893 in Berlin, the book was far more than a practical guide — it was a manual for taming chaos. A self-taught practitioner and researcher, Riss taught readers how to construct organic installations through geometry and physics, bringing the cool logic of supports, wire mesh, and metal frameworks into the seemingly effortless beauty of floral bouquets.
