Speak to the extraordinary Polish Table
In a Polish home, you will never walk away without a belly full of warm food because, once pleasantries are exchanged, you’ll be ushered straight to the dining table. Visiting the Poland Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai might serve as preview of this warm welcome but without the chairs and the food, though delicious Polish delights can be found elsewhere inside. Instead, there is an extraordinary piece of art called the Polish Table, a main exhibit sitting at the heart of the timber building. Having taken a year to create, the massive project is an artistic collage of more than 100 modules. And the best part? You can speak to it.
“Our lives revolve around this piece of furniture”. Adrian Malinowski, Commissioner General of the Poland Pavilion, told Gulf News. “We would like our [visitors] not only to stand by the table but also feel welcome by interacting with the hosts,” said Malinowski. A group of 150 multilingual students will help you brush up on your Polish, so that you may repeat the greeting ‘dzie dobry’ (good morning) to the table. Virendra Saklani/Gulf News. It has a voice-activated lighting feature. Between the many blocks, there are unlit narrow passages waiting to come to life.
Ejsak Group, contractors of the installation, built into the structure eight microphones to allow visitors the unique opportunity of interacting with a table. Upon sensing sound waves, the system sends a command to the LED lights that circle the mic, travel south through the stand and bleed into the table, powering up the spaces between the modules like a sci-fi gadget.