Premiere of the book “Taflowe floors” | Prague interiors | meeting with the author and a demonstration of the restoration of taflowy floors

The meeting with Jacek Turant, the last owner of the Bednarczyk Wood Flooring Factory, author of the book “Floor Tiles” will be led by Katarzyna Chudyńska-Szuchnik, curator of the exhibition Prague interiors. This is an opportunity to talk about the craft, design and history of the Bednarczyk Publishing House, which functioned between 1896 and 2007.

During the meeting, there will be a demonstration of the restoration of historic tiles using traditional methods performed by Jarosław Gawina with the team.

The book “Floor Tiles” is the first publication on the historical tile floors, otherwise wooden, found in Warsaw tenement houses. They were considered as the “first piece of furniture”, as they were an element of finishing representative interiors and gave character to the whole room. They were laid out from square-shaped slabs. Each contained a repeating part of a pattern that created a geometric composition on the floor. Carpenters obtained color effects by using the natural coloration of wood species, most often these were various types of oak, ash, maple, as well as birch, elm, beech and mahogany.

The publication was created in cooperation with the Warsaw Prague Museum, a branch of the Warsaw Museum, as part of the Artisans project. Accompanying the exhibition entitled “Prague Interiors”. Its substantive editor is the curator of the exhibition Katarzyna Chudyńska-Szuchnik.

Jacek Turant — entrepreneur, craftsman, expert on historical wooden floors, continuation of the Warsaw Wood Flooring Factory. He became associated with the company through the Bednarczyk family — multi-generational owners. After his father-in-law, Mieczysław Bednarczyk, a master of artistic craft, he took over not only the management of the label, but also unique knowledge, documentation and rights to historical designs.

For more than thirty years, he led the activities of the company, specializing in the design, manufacture and maintenance of high-end wooden floors. Educated as a precision mechanic and specialist in the management of industrial enterprises, an art historian by passion, he combined technical knowledge with a passion for material heritage.

He executed orders for prestigious buildings in Poland and abroad, including for the Presidential Palace in Warsaw and the Sanssouci palace complex in Potsdam. He has lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Warsaw University of Technology and the Warsaw School of Rural Economy.

Jarosław Gawina - master of parquet flooring with 26 years of experience, teacher of carpenter renovator at the Wood and Forest School Complex in Garbatka, appraiser at the Chamber of Crafts and Small Entrepreneurship in Radom, member of the Board of the Parkieciars Foundation.

The task was realized thanks to the financial support of the city of Warsaw as part of the implementation of revitalization projects.

Education partner of the Warsaw Museum — PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A.

www.gkpge.pl