An Extractive-Industrial-Exhibitionary Complex: Poland’s International Diplomacy during the Cold War

Lecture by Katarzyna Jeżowska.

Abstract

In the late 1950s, Scandinavia became an attractive model for Polish industry and design. The exhibition of Finnish design that opened in Warsaw in 1962 delivered a prompt on how, using the Finnish example, Poland could meet rising consumer demand, strengthen the state’s economy, and elevate its international position. Central to this vision was the strategic use of national resources: timber in Finland, coal in Poland. In her talk, Jeżowska will explore this curious intersection between design and coal as a lens into the state’s material politics during the Cold War. As part of it, manufacturing, design, and resource extraction were part of the same project of socialist worldmaking, one closely intertwined with international diplomacy. 

Bio

Katarzyna Jeżowska is a cultural historian of Eastern Europe. Her research focuses on the exchanges between Eastern Europe and the world and the design cultures of state socialism. Jeżowska is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. In 2026, she is a Visiting Fellow at The Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo.