festival theme: gdynia-zdrój

Gdynia Design Days (GDD) is a Baltic design festival. Each edition of GDD serves as a pretext to discuss topics related to broadly-understood design in the context of changes taking place around us. The exhibitions, workshops, lectures and debates we offer concern topical subjects in the field of technology, process design, ecology, design, fashion, architecture, urban development and craft. Through what we do, we connect the design world with the world of business. Gdynia Design Days is an event addressed to professionals and to everyone who is fascinated by design and interested in finding out more about the changes taking place in dynamically developing societies.

This year’s theme: Gdynia-Zdrój

While Gdynia has never been a spa town, it holds all the potential to become one. Throughout the festival, we extend a warm invitation to Gdynia-Zdrój, a resort town 2.0 designed to meet present-day challenges. Gdynia-Zdrój is where the economy, the planet, our society, locality and people (including ourselves) can regenerate. We want to redefine the concept of renewal, harnessing its semantic capacity – without disconnecting ourselves from cultural and historical associations, yet responding to real, contemporary needs.

It is no coincidence that we chose Gdynia as the place to seek renewal. This is where both residents and visitors come in search of regeneration, balance and a high quality of life. Gdynia offers renewal through contact with nature (proximity to forests, parks and the Baltic Sea) and its modern character of a smart city, designed to facilitate everyday life.

Inspired by the customary activities of traditional spas, Gdynia-Zdrój embodies a commitment to physical and psychological well-being. However, we want to move away from the medical context, associated with invasive treatment of advanced problems, towards prevention and self-care. Consequently, we hope to engage in an open dialogue about how we feel, about our (dis)comfort, empathy and inclusivity. It is also a pretext to look at health in the literal sense – pay attention to practices that will prevent ailments and keep us fit for a long time. At the same time, we want to seek democratic solutions that are available to all (in opposition to current, expensive tools).

Care for our planet and the climate is one of the pillars of Gdynia Design Days. In this context, like each year, we emphasise circular design. This edition is no exception, since our economic models are still in urgent need of healing.

We also want Gdynia-Zdrój to serve as a space for healing our relationship with virtual reality and artificial intelligence – and how we perceive them. Recent months have brought renewed debates about the perils of becoming too immersed in virtual realms and automation. On the other hand, ours is a time marked by strong denial of these phenomena. Yet maybe there is a possibility to heal the relationship between the analogue and digital worlds? We believe that the media operating in these two dimensions are in fact a single world, where artificial intelligence can complement non-digital experience.

Through sentimental allusions to memories of intergenerational holidays, we want to celebrate a return to good old practices and rediscover traditions, creating a place where different generations can meet and exchange skills. We wish to revive forgotten crafts that our parents took for granted, such as darning, sewing and mending. These activities can heal both our psyche and our economy.

Join us for nine days in June and witness Gdynia transform into a spa town 2.0. Throughout the festival, a new place will appear on the map of Poland: Gdynia-Zdrój. A space where we can regenerate as individuals and communities, hoping to heal our planet.

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