Map of symbols on Kamil Kak’s textile – the location of individual elements is available on the illustration below the text

1–3 graffiti from the neighborhood (as an example of the history of unwanted, often visually marginalized marks—throw-ups, tags)

4 2025 (I always embroider the date on my textiles to remember when they were made and what exactly was happening at that time)

5–6 doors leading to one of the primary schools in the neighborhood; the window bars were decorated with paper cut-outs

7 a parrot from the playground in Daniel Gralath Park, part of the installation

8 rainbow sticker (one of the first “pieces of furniture” I installed in the temporary studio in Wadowice; it keeps recurring, I looked at it a lot)

9 “no war but class war” – a throw-up/graffiti in the neighborhood

10–12 graffiti/throw-ups

13 a story from workshops organized at the Aniołkowo Neighborhood Club:
A female swan living on the Motława backwater drove her partner away from the nest (swans bond for life) and raised the offspring alone. The person telling the story adds that despite the formal separation, they often saw the swan with her former mate “at night”.

14 a low-crowned Highlander hat (drawing by one of the people visiting my studio in southern Poland, where “Pole from Gdańsk” was being made). A symbol of turning back to one’s own identity, roots, and the revival of regional culture.

15 an embroidered drawing of an embroidery made during workshops at the Neighborhood Club: a rose

16 a detail from a crocheted tablecloth made by one of the neighborhood residents

17 a reprint of embroidery from another fabric (a reference to previous works; this specific one is in a contemporary art collection, currently on show at NOMUS)

18 Primary School No. 90 in Gdańsk runs classes and an after-school club for children staying in hospital wards. A fox made using the coiling technique (twisting paper strips and joining them into sculptures) by the person running the club. Teachers joke that sometimes it’s hard to pull young patients away from the attractive activities in the club to do, for instance, math classes.

19 a detail of the hospital floor

20 a story from workshops told by participating children: a cat named Svorka got stuck in a tree for four days, then was rescued by one of the Friars Minor, who climbed up to get her. The fire brigade didn’t want to take the cat down (apparently they only do that in movies). Nothing happened to her, but as you can see in the drawing, those were rainy days.

21 chestnuts, a drawing made during the Neighborhood Days

22 Sołdek, detail; a route I often took during my last stay in Gdańsk

23–24 graffiti/throw-ups

25 a date from a wall inscription scratched by Soviet soldiers in 1945 in Aniołki, preserved to this day

26 graffiti/throw-ups

27 a symbol chosen by a workshop participant: the logo of a local confectionery with a cute name

28–29 coiling from the hospital primary school (see point 18)

30 graffiti: three anti-fascist arrows; a symbol of the presence of anti-fascist movements

31 people visiting my studio in Wadowice, but not directly connected to Aniołki, often wanted to take part in the process of building identity (they wanted to add something of their own; the drawings were often very intuitive, tied to recent events in their private lives)

32 I was browsing my old sketchbooks from the period when I lived in Gdańsk: an element from drawings based on Memling’s Last Judgment

33 drawings from the Neighborhood Days: a winter scene from a sleigh ride organized in the neighborhood

34 grandma’s chanterelles: one of the people regularly visiting my studio in Wadowice was my 88-year-old grandmother. She also wanted to participate in the process. At first, shyly and a bit embarrassed, she drew a few chanterelles and rural buildings. After seeing the finished embroidery she was very happy with the result and invited her friends to show them her contribution to the banner.

35 a reference to one of my previous works, see point 17; here: religious sculptures from an Italian catalogue of a company selling church furnishings

36 –

37 stories from workshops: one of the participants recently staged Hamlet, so she embroidered the letter H

38 an architectural detail from the neighborhood: a cast-iron fence

39 a chanterelle, see point 33

40 an object crocheted in the neighborhood club by one of the people leading workshops for residents

41 ladies from the “Bursztynki” Seniors’ Club (operating in the building that houses the neighborhood council and neighborhood club) making plush toys; the profit from their sale supports a local hospice. Each lady makes a specific part of the toy, and later they assemble them together.

42 one of the first archived attempts by my niece to write her own name; found in old sketchbooks from when I lived in Gdańsk (LILY)

43 a story about time spent at UCK, told by someone who spent a few weeks on one of the wards: a nostalgic memory of walking along a path running around a tree; lots of ambulance helicopters were flying; nice moments, time to find calm

44 old sketchbooks from my time living in Gdańsk, a portrait of my flatmate (who also participated in several embroidered symbols)

45–46 fox-skinwalker, a memory recalled by someone who used to live in Aniołki and now lives in Warsaw: a fox walking around the neighborhood with a bottle of Krasnystaw kefir in its mouth. I remember that fox—during the first lockdown in 2020 it moved into an empty building on Chmielna Street, where it stayed with its family.

47 a memory of the TKKF Dębniki Club, an attempt to reproduce its logo from memory

48–49 an architectural detail of one of the tenement houses in the neighborhood (lion’s head, symbol of Gdańsk)

50 architectural details: cast-iron metalwork, window grilles in a characteristic shape

51 architectural details (wood carving)

52 one of the people regularly visiting my studio brought a card she had received from a related boy—it’s an important keepsake for her and she wanted it to be included on the banner: “Antoś for Agata – take care of me”

53 the first sketch showing a very early idea of what the banner would look like

54 an inscription scratched by Soviet soldiers on neighborhood walls before (or in) 1945:
“Up the ass with a dick to whoever wanted to take over Europe.” or “Fuck anyone who wanted to occupy Europe.”
In the current geopolitical situation it takes on a completely new meaning.

55–58 sketches from the beach in Brzeźno

59 a reference to the author’s previous works: glass objects

60 a drawing from one of the Tri-City beaches, made by a person I lived with in Gdańsk (her portrait: see point 44)

61 mysterious inscriptions that appeared near the studio where the embroidery was made in summer 2025

62–63 graffiti from the neighborhood

64 a story from one of the ladies who has lived in the neighborhood for many decades: her husband grew up in Aniołki and as a child played in a car abandoned by the Germans. He always wanted to restore it. At some point the car allocated by the authorities went to one of his neighbors. After years of negotiations he managed to get the car from him (through an agreed barter: exchanging it for a characteristic press and recordings from the entertainment industry) and restored it—now the car runs. For the lady who guided me around Aniołki it was an important symbol of attachment to the neighborhood and she thought it should be included.

65 an architectural detail

66 a scrunchie made during workshops at the Neighborhood House

67 an advertising car in the neighborhood. I wonder which direction Aniołki is developing in? Is it a place not threatened by gentrification after all, or is that process already advancing?

68 archive: an element from sketchbooks made during my years living in Gdańsk

69 a story told by neighborhood seniors recalling the problem of lacking public toilets in neighborhood parks. One of them was reprimanded by city guards for relieving himself in the park. Facing the authorities’ ignoring of his needs, he obtained a certificate from a urologist that he carries with him, solving his problem and gaining the ability to relieve himself freely.

70 a collective work made by teachers and pupils of Primary School No. 90 (hospital school) for building the banner: logo and handprints

71 –

72 during my public-space conversations with people in the neighborhood, one man started talking to me and asked what I was doing. After a moment he voiced a few anti-immigrant slogans. When I asked if he’d like to try drawing what he’d just said (handing him paper and a marker), he gave me a drawing of a heart with the words “LOVE GDAŃSK”

73 deconstructed passport stamps used in my previous projects: a vision of a future where borders are open and the memory of the passport stamp’s shape becomes blurred and distant (a personal response to point 72)

74 a detail from a note left for me during the period of making the work

75 a three-and-a-half-leaf clover found in Aniołki by one of the people co-creating the textile

76 a tank-monument located in the Gdańsk district of Aniołki on Zwycięstwa Avenue. Currently the only tank-monument in the city. The tank is a Soviet medium tank T-34 model 1941/42, with an F-34 gun (caliber 76.2 mm) and a preserved engine

77 on the night of 9–10 September 2025 Russian drones violated Polish airspace; some were destroyed or fell on Polish territory. In total 21 drones were identified; 19 are said to have breached Polish airspace, and some of them (about 16–17) fell to the ground in various locations. A symbol of events taking place during the making of the work, anchoring it in a specific time.

78 bees from the facade of Primary School No. 15

79 coiling from the hospital primary school (see point 18)

80 craft: a crocheted object made by one of the Aniołki residents

81 graffiti on the ground near a tram stop: opinions are divided—MMM or WWW?

82 archival sketchbooks from my time living in Gdańsk: Blueberry Basia (Świeżak), a memory of the craze present in society, which also created a kind of identity around itself (collector’s identity, desire to possess; the drawing shows my Basia)

83 a logo from one of the building facades in the neighborhood

84 archival sketchbooks from my time living in Gdańsk

85 drawings by a person remembering anatomy classes at the Medical University of Gdańsk

86 a token found in the neighborhood

87 an architectural detail

88 a broken swing found in the neighborhood

89 graffiti

90 the Yellow Viaduct, a drawing from the Neighborhood Days

91 a drawing from the Neighborhood Days

92 graffiti

93 a drawing from the Neighborhood Days: in the bottom-right corner a close-up of a wild boar; in the top-right corner an inflatable castle set up during the Neighborhood Days

94 a depiction of one of my last works made during my multi-year stay in Gdańsk

95 a symbol from a banner made during mass protests in August 2020

96 drawings by a person remembering anatomy classes at the Medical University of Gdańsk: an image of the professor in his office

97 a ceiling from a building on the grounds of the former Jewish Gymnasium in Aniołki