Kora Tea Kowalska “Watch Your Step. On Collecting Things” | Reading Room with a View

Beside collections of great works of art, expensive cars, dresses or shoes by famous designers, there are also collections of everyday items amassed by ordinary people. Some collect chewing-gum wrappers, others old toys or pens, and others dishes from the PRL era. Why? What does collecting give us? Why can’t we stop accumulating things? How is it that the same object is trash for one person and a treasure for another? We will talk about collecting—pardon!—collectorship during the March meeting in the “Reading Room with a View” series.

Details of the event:

• 17:00, duration: 90 min
• Meeting place: in front of the Directorate building (next to the piggy bank)
• Tickets: bilety

About the book:

We all collect something. Things surround us, multiply, collections are born. But this is not a book about investing in works of art. Its author is absorbed by the world of cellulose, bakelite and objects found in the mud. They form the backdrop to reflections on the meaning of collecting, the persistent sense of loss and the torment of those who gather.

Kora Tea Kowalska, an archaeologist, cultural studies scholar and collector, in a passionate essay examines what causes us to place some objects in museum or private display cases more readily than others. She proposes her own rules of collecting, only to mock them shortly after. She draws on her experiences and walks along the outskirts and cellars of her native Gdańsk, and the uncountable material sinking into entropy delights her with abstract beauty.

In things she sees an afterimage of the old world. She traces stories hidden in small details, and their mutual connections allow her to reconstruct fragments of everyday life of ordinary people. They also remind us that things are not always what they seem, and that you cannot have everything (publisher’s note – Wydawnictwo Karakter).

About the author:

Kora Tea Kowalska – archaeologist and cultural studies scholar, university lecturer. She deals with the theory and practice of collecting. She cooperates with many cultural institutions, co-creating collections, cultural projects, exhibitions and artistic installations. She is the author of texts on the history of material culture, and also deals with the history of design and documentation of post-war modernist monuments. A collector of discarded and unexpected objects, an expert on a television program about antiques and collectors, and the author of the account @odrzeczysklad.

About the discussion moderator:

Paulina Bandura – cultural manager, professionally involved with books and promoting readership. For ten years she worked in the Pod Globusem bookstore in Kraków. She cooperated with the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, coordinated three editions of Bookstore Night. She writes and speaks about books. She cooperates with the Polish Chamber of Books, the Foundation for Universal Reading and the Goethe-Institut in Kraków.