"RE-TURN"

We are all―people, plants, animals, and objects―immersed in a single space.*

Contact with nature directly affects our well-being. Nature has historically been the place where we have met all our needs.               

Modern humanity is increasingly forgetting the importance of contact with nature. We have enclosed ourselves within concrete cities whose street grid marks the routes of our daily wanderings. The dynamics of our lives and the pursuit of material goods cause us to stop taking care of nature –caring for and nurturing its resources.

By observing nature – the growth and bloom of vegetation, the movement of the sun's disk across the sky, the phases of the moon, the tides of the seas and oceans, the phenomena of birth and death – we become part of it. Through it, we can define who we are and who we will become. Communing with nature and experiencing it with all your senses allows you to reach deep inside yourself, to see your life and everyday needs in a completely different dimension. 

We are not individuals existing in a vacuum but are part of a larger whole: the world in which we live. So let's go back to our roots. Let's hear the silence, seek solace in the sound of the wind, the drops of rain, the smell of the forest.

* Excerpt from the lecture given by Olga Tokarczuk at the time of receiving the Nobel Prize

JUSTYNA ŻAK
Designer and visual arts artist. Graduated with distinction from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the E. Geppert Academy of Arts and Design in Wrocław, 2014. Since 2014, a researcher and lecturer at this university inthe Faculty of Ceramics and Glass. In 2021, she obtained a doctorate in the discipline of fine arts and conservation of art works. Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, 2020, and the Mayor of Wrocław, 2021. Won some prizes in glass design competitions. Participated in 6 individual exhibitions in Poland, and in over 30 group exhibitions in Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, and Italy during The Venice Glass Week.
She seeks inspiration for her works in handicraft traditions and in Nature.