The exhibition ‘The Amazing Land of Quarks, Elephants and Pierogi’ is held by the Tarnów’s Office of Artistic Exhibitions. This is the first presentation in Poland of the exhibition, which premiered in December 2021 in the Polish Pavilion during the Expo 2020 World Exhibition in Dubai.

The exhibition was inspired by the book ‘Quarks, Elephants & Pierogi: Poland in 100 Words’, which is a story about the Polish language and culture aimed at foreign-language readers. The English-language publication by Matthew Davies, Mikołaj Glinski and Adam Żuławski, with illustrations and graphics designed by Magda Burdzyńska, was published in 2018 by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the ‘Niepodległa’ programme – in commemoration of the centenary of the rebirth of the Poland state.

In its original form, the exhibition was primarily aimed at non-Polish speakers, but its creators are convinced that it will also be of interest to Polish audiences.

“We are inviting participants to an extraordinary journey through this fantastic and unexplored land. Fabulous linguistic creatures and unknown word monsters await the participants of the expedition (they are completely harmless!). Along the way, they will find out what the Polish language sounds like and what it looks like – especially for those who do not know it. Also, incredible superpowers of the Polish language, as well as its striking emanations including powerful works of Polish poetry and literature will be discovered”, say the organizers in the invitation to the exhibition.

The book was awarded in the “Most Beautiful Books of the Year 2018” competition. It was also nominated in the AIGA international competition “50 Books | 50 Covers 2019”. In 2020, its fourth edition was published. In 2021, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute published a translation of “Quarks…” into Japanese, authored by Yasuko Shibata. The premiere of the translation took place on 18 June 2022 during the Polish Festival in Tokyo.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński