POLISHED UP. DESIGN FROM POLAND

The exhibition POLISHED UP. DESIGN FROM POLAND is a continuation of the Unpolished  project(www.unpolished.pl), whose numerous unveilings  have been successfully presented over the past three years in Asia and at major European festivals devoted to design. The organizational effort was undertaken by the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, in cooperation with Polish Institutes abroad, while the curators of the exhibition are experts and authorities in the field of Polish and global design: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and designer Paweł Grobelny.

The Unpolished exhibition focused on the design attitudes of a generation that grew up in an era of political change and economic transformation. The young designers decided to design, produce and promote their products on their own. Five years later, these same designers and their young colleagues are already successfully working with the industry, implementing designs into production or professionally manufacturing them in-house, which prove not only design skills, but also knowledge of technology, cooperation in teams and market intelligence. The implemented designs are presented in the POLISHED UP exhibition.

The criterion used by the curators in selecting the objects for the exhibition was precisely the cooperation between the designer and the manufacturer, a conscious decision to share the risk of releasing an object addressed to a specific audience. Although the target group is often elitist, although the selected products are far from the term “mass”, they are nevertheless proof that the Polish market is changing and maturing. The exhibition also proves that there are some very interesting implementations that are the final of cooperation between Polish designers and Polish manufacturers. Not all the presented designs are products of big factories, some are still produced in limited series by the authors.

However, those designers who have undertaken the hardships of production themselves know how to go about it and how to distribute their products. Polished Up is a subjective curatorial selection, which is not intended to show what the situation of design in Poland is. It’s just a snippet, but according to the curators, significant and worthy of attention. One thing hasn’t changed in these 5 years – Polish designers still think straight, have a sense of humor, still appreciate natural materials, flirt with craftsmanship and tradition.

Designers/producers: Małgorzata Knobloch and Igor Wiktorowicz (Vitamin D), Bartosz Mucha/Poorex, Tomasz Augustyniak/Delivie, Jan Kochański/Delivie, Mikołaj Wierszyłłowski/NOTI, TABANDA Group, Nonegrupa (Tomasz Krzempek, Maria Szaban)/Terma, Paweł Jasiewicz, Magdalena Chojnacka (Bongo Design), Design Lab, MOWO/Marmorin, Beza Projekt/Vox, Karina Marusińska/Vox, Tomek Rygalik/Profim.

Organizers of the exhibition: the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, the Department of Trade and Investment Promotion (WPHI) of the Polish Consulate General in Cologne, the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.

Information from the museum’s website: Anna Szlazak aszlazak@muzeum.stalowawola.pl