- What: Meeting
- Where: Level 1
- When: 12 October, 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
The event will be translated into English.
Host: Rafał Kosewski
Guests: Jaap Knevel, Slow Painting Studio (Ola Ignasiak, Karolina Gębka)
Is it possible to combine a meeting about material design and painting? No problem! This year at the festival, we are glad to have Jan van Eyck Academie, a Dutch art and design academy, as our guest. The academy will be exhibiting a portion of its ever-expanding archive of sustainable materials called the Future Materials Bank. Jaap Knevel, the project's designer and co-creator, will talk about the idea behind the project and the methods of sourcing and selecting new materials for the archive.
The Future Materials Bank collection also includes a selection of materials from Poland. The meeting will feature the Slow Painting Studio duo consisting of Ola Ignasiak and Karolina Gębka. These artists use food waste to create biodegradable painting supplies. Frustrated with overproduction and greenwashing in fine arts, they began their own search for environmentally friendly pigment alternatives. After several years of experimentation, they decided to focus on red cabbage, which contains a dye called anthocyanin. Simply altering the pH of the material allows for a wide range of colours and shades. Unfortunately, the colour changes and fades when exposed to light and oxygen. This is due to the instability of anthocyanins and is a characteristic shared by many other natural dyes. Initially, the artists tried to develop a non-toxic way to preserve the colour, but ultimately, they embraced the natural processes that shape the evolution of the colours. These changes became a conscious exercise and part of their artistic practice.
The founders of Slow Painting Studio will discuss the environmental and human health risks of using synthetic dyes. The artists will present an alternative – natural dyes and pigments that can easily replace those produced industrially. You will have the opportunity to create your own colour samples from the prepared materials, and at the end we will create a canvas painting together.
Jaap Willem Knevel - (he/him) creates maps, guides, and archives intended for educational use. He challenges traditional narratives in graphic design concerning accessibility, representation, and cultural diversity.
Along with Pleun van Dijk, he established the Future Materials Bank at Jan van Eyck Academie (NL). It is a free online archive of biomaterials that supports the development of environmentally conscious art and design practices. Since 2017, he has delivered over 250 lectures and workshops for schools, including Amsterdam University of the Arts (NL), Central Saint Martins UAL (UK), and ITESO (MX). He is currently a lecturer in visual communication at Fontys (NL) and a research assistant at HfG Karlsruhe (DE). He completed his bachelor's degree at Design Academy Eindhoven (NL) and his master's degree at Konstfack (SE).
Slow Painting Studio - founded by Ola Ignasiak and Karolina Gębka combines art, sustainability and innovation, bringing audiences into a new era of colour.
The aim is to change the global approach to art and, above all, to colours that can be sourced from edible plant waste and natural ingredients. They work according to the principles of the circular economy and the idea of the zero-waste revolution. The studio promotes sustainable artistic practices through exhibitions and workshops. Alongside their artistic activities, they conduct scientific research and, as a startup, work on eco-friendly innovations for the world of art and industry.
