The exhibition combined past and present, showing the heritage of Polish design through the achievements of contemporary Polish graphic. The display comprised of 100 works of Polish designers interpreted by 25 Polish visual artists, including experienced masters of the Polish school of illustration, artists from the young and medium generation who received rewards all around the globe, as well as young, freshly graduated ones, such as Piotr Młodożeniec, Edgar Bąk or Patryk Mogilnicki.
Particularly attractive for the Korean audience were the illustrations by Małgorzata Gurowska, the winner of the Grand Prix of the Nami Island International Illustrations Concours 2017 and Iwona Chmielewska, an artists with a celebrity status in South Korea, whose picture books enjoy enormous popularity there.
Illustration by Iwona Chmielewska, 1947, 'Urzędnik' ('Clerk'), Christmas Tree decorations, designed by Jan Kurzątkowski, photo: Culture.pl
Artistic interpretations of the objects were also featured in the publication accompanying the exhibition, created as a result of collaboration between the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Wytwórnia publishing house. It contained not only the designs and their visual interpretations presented at the exhibition, but also 100 stories about designers, needs, dreams, possibilities and limitations. Not only did they speak of specific designs, but it also explained the designing and creative process and the concept of design in general, as the field of art that is the closest to people, surrounding us all every day.
Peter Richter, the reviewer of the largest German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, after seeing the exhibition in Berlin wrote, referring to juxtaposing classics of Polish design with their interpretations created by contemporary graphic designers:
You can almost get the impression as if the exhibition’s aim was to prove that design is first of all creating tactile and visual memories. And the younger the designers are, the more flourishing their ironic nostalgia.
Illustration by Małgorzata Gurowska, ca. 1958, Warsaw Neons, designed by Jan Mucharski and others, photo: Culture.pl
The ABCs of Polish Design was the first so extensive a presentation of Polish design in Korea. It was shown in two locations: Avenuel Art Hall Gallery in the popular Seoul Lotte World Mall, located in the fashionable Gangnam district and in Lotte Gallery in Incheon.
The exhibition, organised on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Polish-Korean relations, was accompanied by a rich programme of events, including curatorial tours, lectures on the history of Polish design, design workshops for children, as well as a jazz concert of Rafał Sarnecki Quartet accompanied by Korean saxophonist Lee Sunjae.
