Tadeusz Sumiński , "Warsaw Stations", 1963, © T. Boniecki
The exhibition in Rome showcases highlights of design in Poland of the 1950s and 1960s through the photography of the period
One of the exciting periods of Polish design took place between the political thaw of 1955 and the social and political changes of the late 1960s. The political thaw in the mid 1950s led to greater artistic freedom and an embracing of Modernism and abstraction. The applied arts of the age gave way to everyday objects characterised by a new aesthetic of form married to function.
With the exhibition, previously shown only in Warsaw, set in Italy there begs a comparison with Modernist trends settin across Europe. Certainly, Poland's designers were equally inspired by the movement pervading the continent, with innovation, functionality creavity taking precedence as a new wave of inspiration flashed through Europe east and west.
Through the keen eyes of some of the talented photographers of the time, the exhibition brings into focus a rich heritage that has been largely forgotten. It serves the double service of bringing back these wonderful pieces of furniture, porcelain, neon signs, architecture and more. Eustachy Kossakowski's "cosmic" photograph of the iconic Supersam market in Warsaw (demolished to make room for a commercial development), Tadeusz Sumiński's photographs of the interiors of the modernist Central Station, Zbigniew Dłubak's photographs of the interiors of the Adam men's fashion boutique - the images combine the objective elegance of these objects with their everyday functions, many of them featuring people posing or going about their business.
The images have a documentary value, placing the object-subject in the spotlight, but at the same time they also frame the object-subject in a fashion that is particular to each photographer. Wojciech Plewiński's collection of photographs documents the National Salon of Interior Design in Kraków in 1958, and Wojciech Zamecznik's series focuses on poster art promoting the Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music in the 1960s. Avant-garde photographer Zbigniew Dłubak created a photography-based interior for the Adam men’s-fashion store in central Warsaw. His 1962 project was full of ambiguous humour – an elegant young man, blown-up and stretched across one of the shop’s walls, reemerged in various surrealist configurations across the interior.
The exhibition also features a first-time presentation of design photographs by Tadeusz Sumiński, known in Poland for his work with landscapes. Sumiński was regularly hired as a freelance photographer for the Institute of Industrial Design, shooting images of fashion, design and architecture. His 1963 documentation of Warsaw train stations reflects the author’s artistic credo: "I believe the documentary aspect of photography to be its greatest value, but I can’t resist the desire to aestheticise".
The presentation is crowned with a sequel to Wojciech Plewiński’s brilliant reportage of the 1958 National Salon of Interior Design in Kraków. Mass-market prototypes of modern furniture shown during the Salon gained an intimate and erotic feel in Plewiński’s lens, thanks to the playful presence of a female model (Krystyna Zachwatowicz).
Fotodesign Polacco brings together both aesthetic and commercial aspects of an era of substantial creativity and freedom after a political thaw allowed some of the brightest talents to give fuller reign to their imaginations.
The exhibition is first shown at the Polish Institute in Rome through February and March, then at the Frigoriferi Milanesi Centre for Contemporary Art in Milan as part of the Gallery Weekend accompanying the Disegnare Oggetti Sonori International Exhibition in April. It has been organised in cooperation with the Archaeology of Photography Foundation.
Curators: Ania Jagiello, Rafal Lewandowski
The exhibition was previously shown at the Asymetria Gallery in Warsaw in early 2012.
For more information, see: www.archeologiafotografii.pl