Exhibition and Presentation at the Embassy of Japan in Warsaw

Me and Natalia Guzowska in front of Halina Rościszewska’s exhibition. Picture by Alicja Mazur.

Cranes, folded by Mietek Chmura

Natalia Guzowska’s stars and a selection of models by various creators

Halina Rościszewska (Haligami)’s models

My models

Me giving the opening presentation. Picture by Paulina Pabiańczyk.

On September 26th, 2024, an origami exhibition opened at the Embassy of Japan in Warsaw. Its title is Polish Geometric Origami (Polskie origami geometryczne) and it features works by three contemporary creators active in this genre: Natalia Guzowska (Talina), me (Michał Kosmulski), and Halina Rościszewska (Haligami). Besides that, we also present a number of models by other creators, working within other genres. The exhibition will be open at least until the end of October. If you happen to be in Warsaw, come and have a look. You can find all the information on the event’s Facebook event page.

During the opening, I gave a presentation about the history of origami (Facebook event page). It seems it was well-received, and I admit I myself found digging into this topic very interesting. I have given several somewhat similar presentations before, but focused more on contemporary origami, with origami history being just a minor subplot. This time, history was the main focus, and besides learning a lot, I used this opportunity to also fold a few of the really old models such as some noshi or the famous temate baku. I think having physical folded models in addition to slides helped the presentation a lot. While preparing my talk, I relied heavily on two very good resources related to the history of origami: The Lister List and David Mitchell’s Origami History site. If you are not familiar with them, definitely have a look: both are treasure troves on various aspects of the history of paperfolding.

I’m very happy that the exhibition came to be, and wish to thank the Embassy of Japan and everyone involved, in particular Natalia and Halina. Due to living further away, Halina couldn’t attend the opening, so in the picture above me and Natalia can be seen in person while Halina is represented by her works. In my experience, organizing an origami exhibition outside of origami conventions is quite hard, so having the possibility to display some models at a very attractive location downtown and with the patronage of the Embassy is a great opportunity to promote origami to people not involved in paperfolding so far.