Still from Andrzej Wolski's "Toys", photo: WFDiF archive
The Polish documentary on the roots of creative culture in Poland screens as part of MoMA’s Century of the Child series
Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000 brings together areas underrepresented in design history and often considered separately, including school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, toys and games. The series screens the Polish film Toys as a tribute to the art of home-made toy-making which sustained the eager minds of the youngest generations living under communism in Eastern Europe. Inspired by anything that could be transformed into a toy – a comb, an elastic band or bottle caps, Toys shows the relentlessness creativity of children.
Part of the Guide to the Poles series which capture the undaunted spirit of a nation under foreign rule, the film is also an insight into the circumstances that shaped today's generations of Polish artists and designers. Exemplifying the 20th century as a period of progressive thinking, Toys shows home-made toys as more than just objects but also stepping stones in the creation of liberally thinking young minds.
Director and documentary filmmaker Andrzej Wolski lives and works in France where he directed nearly 40 films in the last 30 years for French television, the BBC and the Polish broadcaster TVP. He specializes mainly in biographies and historical film. He co-wrote Agnieszka Holland's Oscar nominated film Europa Europa. Among his most important works are: Culture Monthly (1985) co-directed with Agnieszka Holland portraying the history of the Literary Institute in Maisons-Laffitte, a film about the life of Józef Czapski also co-directed with Agnieszka Holland Czapski (1985), The Immigrants (1987) in which three couriers find out unknown facts about their war missions in London, Washington and Poland, Moi, Gombrowicz (1989) a series of interviews in which the famous novelist, playwright and essayist reveals his phobias while speaking about trends in art and Jan Lebenstein (2000) – the pilot’s journals.
As part of the Century of the Child series, MoMA is also hosting a show of classics of Polish illustration for children. Poland is also represented at the current Slavs & Tatars solo show at the museum, which counts a Polish artists among the founders of this anonymous international collective. For more information, see: Slavs and Tatars are Transrational at the MoMA.
Sources: MoMA, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Editor: Marta Jazowska