POLISHED UP. Design from Poland

http://www.dnidizajnu.pl/pl/2014/aktualnosci

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 design festivals. 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 taken on 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 meant 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 over these 5 years – Polish designers still think straight, have a sense of humor, still appreciate natural materials, flirt with craft 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.

Exhibition within the framework of the 2nd Design Days in Stalowa Wola.

Coordination on the part of the Museum: Anna Szlazak / Marzena Kościółek-Tofil