Mr Wojciech Świątkowski is a co-creator of the artistic installation – a straw spider located in the Krakowska Gate and presented during the Re:tradition Festival in 2026.
Mr Wojciech Świątkowski continues the tradition of wicker weaving, which has been preserved in his family for at least five generations.
He describes the beginnings of his story with a sense of humour:
“My first documented encounter with wicker was when I was just a few months old, when I posed for genre scenes presenting wickerwork products for the magazine ‘Plon’ – it was in April 1983.
I managed to make my first weaves when I was a few years old. At that time, I spent whole days in my father’s workshop, where the workers, wanting to keep a child occupied, gave me the sides of baskets to weave. This is how I practised the basic weave.”
Mr Wojciech’s workshop is located in Leszno in Mazovia – the conditions in this Vistula river area are favourable for willow trees, the plants used in wickerwork. The beginnings of willow cultivation in the vicinity of Wyszogród are generally associated with Olęder settlement, which is also believed to have brought the tradition of weaving to this region.
Since 2002, Mr Wojciech has been a practising wickerworker and a teacher of this craft. He harvests wicker from his own plantation. Using traditional techniques and weaving patterns, he creates works inspired by designs rooted in the heritage of the region, as well as in his own family tradition.
His works can be found, among others, at the Museum of Wickerwork and Hop-Growing in Nowy Tomyśl. He is a member of the Stowarzyszenie Twórców Ludowych, the Association of Polish Wickerworkers, and the LOT “Intangible Cultural Heritage Trail in Poland” Association. In 2007, he won the “Most Beautiful Wicker Form” competition organised in Nowy Tomyśl.
Wickerwork in Poland was inscribed on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018.
Wickerwork traditions were inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2025. Mr Wojciech took part in the preparation of the application.
Photo: Tomasz Bylina
