The exhibition looks at the long, often overlooked history connecting Poland and Iceland – one that began with trade long before Poles became the largest immigrant population in Iceland. Polish coal, fabrics, cars, tractors and even chocolate bars such as Prince Polo circulated between the two countries decades before contemporary migration reshaped Icelandic society.

The title originates from an authentic advertisement that appeared in the classified section of a local newspaper in 1991: “Some honest persons from Poland seeks a seasonal work in summer 91, maybe in a forestry.” Its combination of sincerity, optimism and limited knowledge of the destination captures an enduring migrant tension – hope colliding with partial information.

Alongside this social history, the exhibition asks a simple but revealing set of questions: Can emotional attachments to the same products take similar forms in two geographically distant countries? Can a nation shaped by a centrally planned economy share nostalgic consumer memories with one rooted in Western capitalism? And how did it come to be that an Icelandic professor’s family owned the very same model of car that our uncles drove in Poland – one manufactured in a system that was perceived as “other”?

By working with embroidery, video and painting and by combining archival materials with contemporary reflections, artists Weronika Balcerak and Lukas Bury revisit this unexpected cultural overlap. The exhibition highlights how everyday objects, labour and economic entanglements have influenced Iceland and Poland for nearly a century, revealing a relationship that began long before EU migration – and that continues to shape both countries today.