Unpolished 9 - Budapest

Design – a Polish export hit

Following the successes that the exhibition of Polish design “UNPOLISHED – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND” achieved this year at prestigious design festivals including Salone del Mobile in Milan, Designer’s Days and Paris Design Week in Paris, its next, expanded edition will be presented in Budapest at the Museum of Applied Arts.

The exhibition “UNPOLISHED – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND” is a project whose main idea is to present the most interesting works and achievements of young Polish designers to the widest possible audience. To promote Polish design in the world, to show that Polish design, which draws on the rich Polish experience and traditions, is a distinct phenomenon, and thus attractive and worth knowing. The success that the exhibition enjoys at design festivals across Europe proves that Polish design is gaining more and more recognition, and that its creators – young artists – thanks to their talent, imagination, experience, unconventional ideas and passion – count on international markets.

“UNPOLISHED 9 – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND/BUDAPEST” is another exhibition of works by Polish designers, which was first presented to European audiences in 2009 in Brussels. The latest edition will be unique, because it will be realized as part of the cultural setting of the Polish Presidency of the European Union.

“We first presented the works of young Polish designers in September 2009 at the DESIGN SEPTEMBER festival in Brussels. 

Polish artistic achievements then aroused the interest of professionals – design experts and the public. It turned out that Polish design is attractive to the European audience, and our designers have interesting, surprising and unique ideas.” – explains Agnieszka Jacobson Cielecka, curator of the exhibition. “Thus, the UNPOLISHED exhibition has become a cyclical project – after all, every year new creators appear, there are more and more interesting artistic projects worth showing in Europe. “

Most of the designers and design groups presenting their works at the exhibition belong to the generation of thirty-year-olds. This is, according to the curators, the most interesting group of Polish artists. Brilliantly educated, they not only design, but also produce and promote their own work. Many of them have already gained worldwide recognition, successfully competing with designers from other countries.

“When selecting works and designers, we were looking for the most characteristic elements of Polish design, features that distinguish us from other designers. 

When preparing such exhibitions, we are always faced with the question what do we actually want to prove? Is it that Poles design like everyone else? Or that they design differently from everyone else?” points out Agnieszka Jacobson Cielecka. “Certainly the process of creation and the choice of materials is special. Designers reach for materials that are accessible, inexpensive and natural: wood, osb and mdf boards, felt, or recycled materials. They also most often make their objects themselves or with the help of local craftsmen. Most works are prototypes, uniques or limited series.”

Some artists are inspired by Polish tradition, material culture or craftsmanship. Many works are characterized by humor, irony, balancing on the border between design and art, a perverse sense of humor or distance from classic definitions of design. Such are the works of Agnieszka Bar or Concrete. Another theme is the fascination with material, texture and manufacturing technology, particularly noticeable in the works of Monika Patuszyńska, Magdalena Trzcionka or Karina Marusińska. The presented projects have a common denominator: it is simplicity, modesty, balance between tradition and modernity and striving for harmony according to the principle “less is more”.

The curators of the exhibition are recognized experts and authorities in the field of Polish and world design: Agnieszka Jacobson Cielecka and Pawel Grobelny. 

The organizers of the exhibition – the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola and the Polish Institute in Budapest – consistently promote Polish design and applied art in Poland and abroad, contributing to the development of this field of art.

The exhibition “UNPOLISHED 9 – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND/BUDAPEST” presents 26 works by 18 Polish designers and design groups.

designers:

Agnieszka Bar, Aze design, Beton, Joanna Bylicka, DBWT, Agnieszka Czop and Joanna Rusin, Gogo, Kafti Design, Kosmos Project, Bogdan Kosak, Malafor, Karina Marusińska, Bartosz Mucha, Monika Patuszyńska, Puff-Buff Design, Tomek Rygalik, Magdalena Trzcionka, Oskar Zięta.

UNPOLISHED 9 – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND/BUDAPEST:

1.10 – 13.11.2011 – Museum of Applied Arts, 1091 Budapest, Üllői út 33-37.

(www.imm.hu). The museum welcomes visitors from Tuesday to Sunday from: 10:00-18:00

Curators of the exhibition

AGNIESZKA JACOBSON-CIELECKA – curator of many exhibitions and journalist, expert and popularizer of contemporary design in Poland and abroad. Since 2008 artistic director and curator of exhibitions at the Łódź Design Festival (www.lodzdesign.com). She cooperates with many cultural institutions in Poland and abroad, organizing exhibitions of Polish and international design, including: UNPOLISHED – YOUNG DESIGN FROM POLAND together with Paweł Grobelny (2009), NATURAL RESOURCES OF POLISH DESIGN (2009), POLSKA FOLK (2010), MATERIA PRIMA (2010), DZIECINADA (2010). He is also involved in the popularization of design and designers. From 2000 to 2007 she was editor-in-chief of the Polish edition of Elle Decoration. Graduate of the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk.

PAWEŁ GROBELNY – designer and curator of design exhibitions, studied at the Academies of Fine Arts in Poznan, Lyon and Paris. Winner of numerous design competitions including “LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy for Young Creators 2005/2006″, ‘Parckdesign 2008″, ’Prodeco 2006 – Young Designer”, “Prodeco 2008″, ‘Machina Design Award 2009″ and honorable mention in the competition ’The new subjectivity in design” organized by the Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw and the British Council. In 2009, he was selected as one of the 100 Young Creative European Talents in the European Union’s Year of Creativity and Innovation.

He is the author of benches for the Albertine gardens in Brussels and Zhongshan in Shanghai, and has designed numerous public interiors in Poland as well as Belgium, France and Spain. His works have been exhibited in Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, New York, Marseilles, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo Design Week, among others.

organizers of the exhibition

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola is a modern institution specializing in promoting contemporary design and organizing exhibitions at home and abroad. The museum draws inspiration from the tradition of the city of Stalowa Wola, which was built from scratch in the 1930s. Modernism and decorativeness of art déco style are present in architecture and urban planning, preserved interiors of some buildings, but also in the Museum’s collection: a collection of applied art maintained in art déco style.

The museum creates a platform for dialogue between modernist traditions and modern activities in contemporary culture. Design and design remains an important sphere not only of culture, but also of the economy, so the Museum is a continuator of the ideas from which Stalowa Wola grew. It promotes design and contemporary art by conducting extensive educational and exhibition activities.

The Museum is the organizer of a series of design exhibitions – UNPOLISHED, POLSKA FOLK, DZIECINADA, JUST A THING – presented in London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Cologne and Venice, among others.

The Polish Institute in Budapest is one of the oldest Polish Institutes in the world,and one of the longest running Polish cultural institutions abroad. Currently, every year the Polish Institute in Budapest is involved in the organization of about 120 various programs in the fields of culture, education and science. Its doors are thus crossed annually by more than 30,000 people, and a multiple of this number takes part in programs organized by the Institute outside its own premises, including such events as the Budapest Spring Festival, Sziget Fesztivál and Mediawave. The activities conducted by the IP are increasingly not limited to presenting Polish culture to Hungarians, but seek to encourage full participation in it, i.e. to assimilate its content and forms creatively. It is this kind of thinking that has underpinned the activities resulting in cooperation through Polish and Hungarian artists. Taking advantage of the opportunities brought by the reconstruction of Nagymezo Street into a pedestrian passageway, the Polish Institute in Budapest is increasingly open until late at night, or rather early in the morning, as part of cyclical program blocks of several hours, called “Open Door Nights,” thus becoming an integral part of Budapest’s “Broadway.”

additional information:

Joanna Lozinska,

e-mail: joanna.lozinska@prinfo.pl; www.unpolished.pl

phone: +48 660 41 41 02

Media contact from the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest

Koren Zsolt

e-mail: sajto@imm.hu

phone:+ 36 1 456-5107