In photos: You can speak to the extraordinary Polish Table at Expo 2020 Dubai

In a Polish home, you will never walk away without a belly full of warm food because, once pleasantries are exchanged, you’ll be ushered straight to the dining table. Visiting the Poland Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai might serve as preview of this warm welcome but without the chairs and the food, though delicious Polish delights can be found elsewhere inside. Instead, there is an extraordinary piece of art called the Polish Table, a main exhibit sitting at the heart of the timber building. Having taken a year to create, the massive project is an artistic collage of more than 100 modules. And the best part? You can speak to it.

In a government-commissioned culinary guide ‘The Polish Table’, Magdalena Tomaszewska-Bolałek, head of Food Studies at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, refers to the table in Polish homes as a prized place: “Our lives revolve around this piece of furniture”. Adrian Malinowski, Commissioner General of the Poland Pavilion, told Gulf News in an interview that the installation is the perfect example of a Polish reception. “We would like our [visitors] not only to stand by the table but also feel welcome by interacting with the hosts,” he said. A group of 150 multilingual students close by will help you brush up on your Polish, so that you may repeat the greeting ‘dzień dobry’ (good morning) to the table and those around you.

The Polish Table is not ordinary furniture. It measures 400 centimetres in length and 260 centimetres in width, and comes with a special ability – it has a voice-activated lighting feature. Between the many blocks forming the table, there are unlit narrow passages waiting to come to life. Ejsak Group, contractors of the installation, built into the structure eight standing microphones of varying heights to allow all visitors the unique opportunity of interacting with a table. Upon sensing sound waves, the system sends a command to the LED lights that circle the mic, travel south through the stand and bleed into the table, powering up the spaces between the modules like a sci-fi gadget.

Nature has been a running theme in Poland’s World Expo participations. At Expo 2020 Dubai, the theme of ‘Creativity inspired by Nature’ noticeably manifests in the timber sourced from south-eastern forests of Poland all around you. Blocks of ash wood were carved into the mountainous terrain of the country on the Polish Table, specifically the Tatra Mountains and the Poland’s highest peak, Rysy. Nearby, you can even spot an impression of the largest lake in Poland, Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), also in the Tatra range. “We would like our guests to know that the pavilion is not only related to inventions and technology but [also] the people living in Poland, our nation and its best features,” said Malinowski.

The dynamic table has even more to offer. A 250-centimetre-high tower of steel rises on the farther end of the table, where the metal skeleton is decked with more art modules, reaching towards another sculpture hanging low from the pavilion ceiling. To activate another cool feature, visitors have to speak into all of the mics at once as a “common goal to light up the table” and watch different paths of the light travel up the tower, merge as one and shoot a unified beam into the sculpture overhead. This is a metallic flock of migratory birds that flutter in the wind found on the façade of the pavilion.

The six art modules among the ash wood blocks of wood are made out of raw materials that are commonly found in Poland. With the help of student volunteers, visitors will learn of each piece’s significance and the seven artists who worked tirelessly on the project in their own respective studios, not knowing the final outcome until summer of this year. “They had no clue; we just gathered them at a workshop in Poland during May – this was the first time that all of them stood by the table and saw it,” said Malinowski. “It’s a great story to [tell] because even for them the gathering point was the Polish Table.” Representing the glass module is Agnieszka Bar, ceramics by Małgorzata Szewc of Bolesławiec and Marta Małoszyc, steel and materials used in yachts production by Mikołaj Król of Conrad Shipyard, wood by Maciej Siuda, copper and silver modules by Oskar Zieta of Zieta Studio and aluminium used in space industry by Monika Świech-Szczepańska of PIAP Space.

GLASS BY AGNIESZKA BAR. In the left corner of the table, there are glass cubes coated with a milky film. Malinowski said that it was to mimic the foggy landscapes of Poland. You might even find them resembling melting ice cubes; Bar deliberately gave the cuboids a matte finish to remind us of our world’s limited resources.

STEEL AND OTHER YACHT-BUILDING MATERIALS BY MIKOŁAJ KRÓL OF CONRAD SHIPYARD. Poland is the second highest producer of small yachts in the world. Representing its shipbuilding legacy is the module made of steel, aluminium, stone and wood used in yacht construction.

CERAMICS BY MARTA MAŁOSZYC AND MAŁGORZATA SZEWC. Two ceramic modules by these artisans honour the Bolesławiec pottery tradition in Poland. Hints of the world-famous dinnerware can be seen in the baked and hand-painted clay embedded into the Polish Table.

ALUMINIUM ALLOY BY PIAP SPACE. In the undulating wooden terrain is a range of pointy grey mountains on the table. This piece of artwork was created using aluminium alloy fed into a 3D printer. “It is used in the space industry and is being sent to the moon and Mars as well,” said Malinowski, adding that this special integration stood for Poland’s ambitious future. Visitors will see how the metal is printed into a lattice structure, which makes it light and extremely durable in space.

COPPER AND SILVER BY OSKAR ZIĘTA. Two-dimensional sheets of metal become three-dimensional sculptures in the making of these modules by Wroclaw-based architect and artist Oskar Zięta and his studio Zieta. The result is an alien-looking mountain range made of copper and silver that glisten like molten metal. The modules were constructed using the FiDU technique, from German, which literally means Free Inner Pressure Forming, where the metal is inflated.

WOOD BY MACIEJ SIUDA. A wooden element is fitted snugly into a wooden base – this inlaying technique, a fast-disappearing craft, known as intarsia is what architect and designer Maciej Siuda used in his piece for the Polish Table. More than 18 species of tree bark, such as maple, bird cherry, black walnut and rosewood, were gathered by Siuda from across Poland and preserved in rows of cubes. Somewhat reminiscent of nested dolls, the multi-coloured wooden boxes hope to raise awareness about the unjustified logging in nature reserves.

When asked what the most difficult part of the building process was, Arkadiusz Ejsak, founder of Esjak Group, told Gulf News that each wooden block took up to 16 hours to finish. Satellite images of Poland from the European Union's Earth observation programme Copernicus were used to get the details down as precisely as possible. “It took three and a half months of constant work, 12 hours a day, from start to finish,” said Ejsak on the construction.