About Us

We are a community engaged cultural foundation working towards a less polarised, more socially just and sustainable future through the arts.

Fundacja Ziemniaki i is an international cultural institution and not-for-profit to encourage and nurture early-career artists, designers, craftspeople, writers and curators. We believe that there is no future without culture. That’s why we’re driven to work together on improving access, visibility, and working conditions in the creative arts, and encouraging their positive role in an open and free society. We are in a unique position to support the arts, and also to advocate for the role of culture in the fight against critical, systemic issues like the climate catastrophe and increased social polarisation.

At a time of social fracture, we know the importance of collaboration. That’s why Warsaw-based Fundacja Ziemniaki i and Stroboskop Art Space have formally joined forces to strengthen the cultural sector in the CEE region. In 2023, Stroboskop’s director Katie Zazenski joined Ziemniaki i as its new co-director, cementing the collaboration between the two entities. Together, we are stronger and more adaptable. But we need your support to ensure that our boundary-pushing and care-driven work can continue.

Stroboskop is the longest-running artist-run space in Warsaw, which has been directed by Katie Zazenski since 2018. With a mission of platforming local and international artists and ideas that are under-represented in the local contemporary art scene, they are a site of experimentation and artistic risk-taking. They work with both emerging and established artists and aim to develop strong intergenerational, intercultural, and interdisciplinary relationships and dialogue.

Ziemniaki i is co-directed by Josh Plough and Katie Zazenski

Josh Plough is a writer, editor and educator who focuses on the world of design andits position in the webs of folklore, identity, politics and futures. He was the recent recipient of the 2022 Fondazione Fitzcarraldo scholarship in Cultural Policies at Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana and a contributing writer to several international publications. In 2023, Josh was selected as a design mentor for the New European Bauhaus.

Credit: Patrycja Treichel, Polska Institutet

Katie Zazenski is an artist, curator, writer, and lecturer whose practice is centred around cultural production in independent/peripheral communities. As director of Stroboskop (since 2018), she has produced over 30 exhibitions as well as hosted numerous artist talks and lectures on contemporary art in East and Central Europe. Since 2020 she has written for, and in 2022 became co-editor-in-chief for BLOK magazine. Zazenski received her MFA from  the Cranbrook Academy of Art and is a twotime Fulbright Fellow to Poland.

Our 5 pillars of the future

1
International, interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation
2
To play a critical role in the continued regional (cee) and global development and sustaining of contemporary art, design and culture
3
To platform underrepresented or otherwise marginalised voices
4
To be a flexible and nonlinear institution that embraces rather than defines
5
To respond to the needs of our community

Our foundation is committed to action, not performative gestures.