ÅOOMI Home Stories — PION Studio

Basia Kuligowska and Przemysław Nieciecki are the duo behind PION Studio — photographers specializing in interior and architecture photography. They have been working their way in the interior photography industry for almost a decade and today, they capture the finest interiors and architecture in Poland and abroad. We visited their Warsaw home to try their summer cooking and talk about work, life and culinary experiments.
Monika Mróz
7.27.2023
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Monika Mróz
7.27.2023
Basia and Przemek's apartment is located in the very green and peaceful neighbourhood of Mokotow. We are first welcomed by Lesiu, their little Bichon dog. Entering the flat, we can smell the delicious food that is being prepared in the kitchen. We almost instantly feel at home. While Przemysław is preparing the salmon sashimi, Basia and I sit over a herbal tea and start to talk.

You travel a lot. What makes you feel truly at home?

The feeling of being at home is all about the senses. We feel the maximum of comfort when we lay under the blanket, our fridge is full of food, there’s a smell of fresh coffee in the air, ambient music plays in the background and our dog is sleeping next to us.

You have been photographing the most refined interiors in Poland and abroad for many years now. How did you decide to style your own space? How would you describe its character?

Our home is very eclectic! We are happy with the way it is because we can be just ourselves in our space. In the past, we would go through phases of different interior styles: the raw minimalism, beige tones, the Parisian style… we were chasing after trends. Now we know that our personalities cannot be narrowed down to one specific set of rules: we gained a much more free approach to creating the space around us. It’s a little bit like that with our Instagram, too: we used to have different ideas for it, but now we are much more relaxed, both at home and in social media. So, we would describe our interior style as a mixture of our intuition, emotions and internal explorations.

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Our home represents pure eclecticism! It has been like this for a while now and we’re very happy with it — we can be just ourselves here.
You invited us for dinner. Tell us what you cooked!

We cooked today the food that, just like our home, is a mixture of our travels to the south of France, Berlin, Copenhagen, but also the memories of simple Polish childhood. We ate the best sashimi in Nobu Hotel, and we decided to prepare our version of it today. We usually buy fish and seafood at a local store in our neighbourhood. We usually eat oysters in the south of France, where we regularly come back for work and vacations, and this flavour brings us to the careless times at the sea. What also lives deep inside of us though, is the comfort food of Polish summer, because summer in Poland is beautiful and delicious. That’s why we prepared a lot of Polish flavours today: bilberry bun (served with pistachio ice cream), strawberries, cherries and broad beans. We also made Korean-style cucumbers, because it’s currently on our wish list to go to Korea.

Do you celebrate any rituals connected to food?

Basia: Przemysław’s big passion is cooking and I’m lucky enough to be fed by a very creative cook. Our regular ritual is to make food on the weekends. On a Saturday morning we go to the food market near Warsaw to buy fresh food and herbs. We have a couple of local shops that we always visit to buy ingredients for our culinary experiments. But every shopping trip starts with a coffee at one of our favourite cafes. After coming back home, we spend a big part of our Saturday on cooking — it is then when we cherish the comfort of our home. And on Sundays… we usually eat!

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You served your dishes ÅOOMI ceramics. Why did you chose our tableware? 

ÅOOMI pieces have been present in our home for years — we remember getting our first espresso mugs years ago at a design fair in Warsaw. We love ÅOOMI for its timeless character  and for being a perfect canvas for our culinary fantasies. Over so many years, we never got bored with ÅOOMI. It’s like a classic white shirt: it exists outside of time and fashion. 

You have been photographing homes, restaurants and hotels made by known architects around the world. What was your favourite space to document?

We love the interiors of hotel Amour in Paris and Nice, and Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles that we recently visited. It was an incredibly interesting and eye-opening experience.

Is there a dream project you would like to work on?

We are lucky to say that many of our professional dreams have come true. The most recent ones were to work in Mexico and the United States. The next dream on our list is Asia!

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Jesteście duetem w życiu zawodowym i prywatnym. Jak odnajdujecie balans pomiędzy pracą i życiem?

Długo dochodziliśmy do tego, jak odnaleźć odpowiedni balans. Kiedyś mieliśmy przekonanie, że nie jest on nam potrzebny — przecież lubimy robić razem rzeczy w domu i zawodowo. Przez jakiś czas to się faktycznie sprawdzało i byliśmy bardzo blisko na wielu polach życia. W pewnym momencie okazało się jednak (co teraz wydaje się nam oczywiste), że nie jest to dobre rozwiązanie. Jesteśmy ze sobą już 10 lat i przez ten czas bardzo się rozwinęliśmy jako ludzie, każdy w swój sposób. Od pewnego czasu dużo więcej życia spędzamy osobno i dbamy o swoje osobne światy, które jednak czasem bardzo za sobą tęsknią i pragną znowu być blisko.

Basiu, Ty od jakiegoś czasu zajmujesz się masażem. Jak zaczęła się dla Ciebie ta przygoda? Co daje Ci ruch i masowanie innych?

Moje poszukiwania siebie w obszarze pracy z ciałem i w masażu wyniknęły właśnie z potrzeby balansu między nami. Przed długi czas czułam, że żyję tylko fotografią, pracą, którą bardzo kocham jednak w tak dużej ilości pracy i bodźców było mi trudno to znowu poczuć. Mi samej masaże, praca z uważnością i kontakt z ciałem bardzo pomogły i pomagają nadal w trudniejszych psychicznie momentach. Kiedy w jakimś kryzysowym momencie rozmawiając z moja terapeutka, poczułam że ten obszar woła mnie też z drugiej strony - że to ja mogę coś dać innym. Myślę, że moja artystyczna wrażliwość i autentyczność bardzo pomaga mi w byciu masażystką. Czucie ciała i energii drugiej osoby wymaga dogłębnego kontaktu ze swoim wnętrzem, co dla mnie jako dla kreatywnej osoby jest naturalne. Nie spodziewałam się, że taki sposób pracy stanie się dla mnie aż tak ważny, ale czuje że bardzo mnie rozwija, co przekłada się też na nas jako parę w życiu i pracy.

ÅOOMI ceramic is like a classic white shirt: it exists outside of time and fashion and we can never get bored of it!
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ÅOOMI ceramic is like a classic white shirt: it exists outside of time and fashion and we can never get bored of it!
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