letterform sculpture
wood, polycarbonate, MDF

Żabianka-Wejhera-Jelitkowo-Tysiąclecia is a district assembled from several areas that local residents do not always perceive as a coherent whole. Rather, it is an administrative name encompassing distinct housing estates and coastal areas. Even pronouncing the district’s complicated name can be a challenge, which is why some people shorten it to its first element – Żabianka – or use the acronym ‘ŻWJT’ as the name of their district.

The artist on his work:

My letterform sculpture is a prototype for a district emblem and welcome marker. It is an object that could become a point of reference for both residents and visitors. That is why it is so important to me to place it at the symbolic ‘beginning’ of the district and, in doing so, give the site something of the character of a square, a meeting place and a focal point for associations.

ŻWJT consists of four letters symbolising the district’s four constituent parts. Each loosely refers to elements I observed on site, but together – through their totem-like forms – they make up a coherent whole. Their shape is largely determined by materials I found in the NARRACJE storage space: long wooden beams and coloured polycarbonate circles. Using second-hand materials is important to me: it has made the project more sustainable and helped minimise its environmental impact. The recycling of forms and materials roots the work both physically in the festival’s cycle and symbolically in the context of the place.

TOMEK BERSZ

is a graphic and typographic designer, illustrator and mural artist. He studied in the Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities programme at the University of Warsaw and at the Faculty of Graphic Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. Bersz designs books and visual identities for exhibitions and cultural institutions. He has created art installations and murals in Poland and Georgia, sometimes also developing urban games to accompany them. Together with Marian Misiak, he co-founded the BerszMisiak collective. For the Alternativa festival, they jointly developed a shipyard typeface inspired by the lettering of the former Gdańsk Shipyard (2009–2015). Bersz lives and works in Warsaw.