Weaving Together What Is Still Becoming

For the exhibition celebrating the gallery’s 50th anniversary, the design challenged the notion of the gallery as a neutral space and instead approached it as a territory connected to its broader context: the city of Ustka, its community, the Baltic Sea, and the histories embedded within its landscape.

The intervention began with the colour of the walls, moving the gallery away from the conventions of the white cube. Inspired by the pink-purple tones that occasionally appear on Ustka’s beaches after storms, when sediments are deposited along the shore, the colour established an atmospheric connection between the exhibition and its environment.

A second component was the development of a flexible seating system designed to accommodate performances, workshops, talks and listening sessions. Conceived as adaptable infrastructure, the furniture responds to the changing needs of the programme while remaining available for future use across the gallery’s spaces in Ustka and Słupsk.

The design extended beyond the exhibition rooms through a series of colour transparencies installed throughout the building’s circulation areas. These interventions connected different floors and encouraged visitors to experience the institution as a continuous spatial environment rather than a sequence of isolated galleries.

Artist: Agata PLK Polak, Andreea Anghel, Anna Steller, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Ewa Zarzycka, Ludomir Franczak, Magdalena Franczak, Marta Romankiv, Milena Bonilla, Pêdra Costa, Przemek Branas