Inside Seaside is not just a music festival – since its first edition, the event has been open to various forms of creativity, and the Inside Art zone, in partnership with ORLEN, has become a meeting place for music and contemporary art. In the AmberExpo halls, the audience will be able to see exhibitions, take part in workshops, and experience art in action – just as it pulsates in the rhythm of the city and everyday life.
IN MERCH WE TRUST!
A rock band T-shirt is more than just a piece of cotton. It is a banner, a relic, a manifesto. It is the holy grail, imprinted with the history of music and the communal energy of subcultures. The black Joy Division logo, Sonic Youth’s “Goo” drawing, iconic typography, and random printing errors – all these forms have become not only concert souvenirs, but also signs of belonging that have permeated the history of art, design, and pop culture.
Maciej Salamon uses this language to transform ephemeral cotton “artefacts” into monumental images. The exhibition presents 12 canvases measuring 160 × 200 cm. Their scale reverses the proportions: a T-shirt, which was an intimate and personal choice on the body, here becomes a monument, an emblem, an icon. Some of them refer to classics – recognisable, iconic designs that have entered the canon of visual music history. Others evoke local bands, niche and unknown to the general public, but equally important for creating the musical fabric of the community.
Salamon, himself a member of the band Nagrobki, knows very well how important well-prepared merch is to a band’s functioning. Four of the canvases remain empty. They are accompanied by markers – tools for the viewer to take on a creative role. Viewers can “finish” the T-shirt themselves by writing their own stories, slogans, drawings, and names of their favourite bands on the image. This gesture democratises art, just as a concert T-shirt has always been a democratic medium – accessible and personal at the same time.
LOCATION: Level 1
POSTER FAIR
This year’s edition of the festival will feature a unique Poster Fair & Friends zone for the third time – a space dedicated to poster art, illustration and independent design. It is a place where visual art meets the energy of music, and the emotions of the festival are transferred onto paper and original items created by Polish artists.
For this edition, the festival organisers have prepared something special: five selected artists have created original Inside Seaside festival posters, interpreting the atmosphere of the event in their own individual way. Limited editions of these posters will be available exclusively in the Poster Fair & Friends zone – both for viewing and purchase. This is a unique opportunity to take home a rare, collectible souvenir from the festival.
Illustrators, designers and independent artists from all over Poland will present their work in this zone. The public will be able to meet the artists in person, talk about their work and purchase selected pieces directly from the creators.
Aquarelki • Kwiatek Lasu • Tesorini • Elfic Lucus • Vote For Pralka • Jan Rutka • Pan Kulka • Maciek Niuans • Kordecka.art • Burakovvska • Potato Face • Tashka • Pade Space • Smutne Historie • Agnieszka Delew • Agnieszka Osiecka • Natalia Anna Łęcka • Julia Sokulska • Zofia M. Krzyżanowska • Piotr Gruszczyński
LOCATION: HALL C
RELAX. BROADCAST INTERRUPTION
The title of the exhibition refers to Joy Division’s cult song “Transmission” (1979), which is a manifesto of generational tension, pressure, and loneliness in the post-industrial era. When Ian Curtis repeats “Dance, dance, dance to the radio”, he does so out of desperation rather than joy – dancing here becomes an act of helplessness in the face of a broadcasting system “that never stops talking, feeds on fear, dominates the body”.
The exhibition Relax. Break in Transmission is a reversal of this logic. It is an act of switching off from the endless stream of signals—information, stimuli, obligations, expectations. It is not escapism, but a conscious “suspension” – the creation of a space where we can stop dancing “to the radio” and start listening to ourselves.
“Relax. Break in Transmission” is an attempt to look at different forms of rest: from escapism and daydreaming, through rituals of the body and nature, to technological alienation or regeneration. The exhibition raises questions about individual and collective strategies of “switching off” – or, conversely, of deeper “connection” with oneself and one’s surroundings.
Curator: Emilia Orzechowska
LOCATION: First floor
Project co-financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan with the support of the European Union (NextGenerationEU)
