A Polish exhibition in Milan, an overview of talented artists’ portfolios, inspiring stories and interior designs.
“The contemporary Polish architectural and design modernism is viewed as an ambivalent legacy: on the one hand, it is burdened by associations with dull housing estates and the drabness of the communist era; on the other, it is being rediscovered as a source of timeless simplicity and authenticity,” writes Hanna Rydlewska, the editor-in-chief, in her editorial to the new edition of Vogue Polska Living. The cover with a chrome-plated chair designed by Mati Sipiora and metallic fabric by Rest Studio shining in the hall of the National Museum in Warsaw tease a new exhibition by the Visteria Foundation titled “Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty”. It will premiere during Milan Design Week and will come to Warsaw this fall.
“Beauty of every day and for everyone” — this title by Czesława Frejlich embodies the revolutionary concept of modernist style. Frejlich wonders why design from the 1950s and 1960s continues to spark collectors’ enthusiasm. “A century ago, modernists would see the availability and mass production of goods as an opportunity and progress for the society, while today, in an era of global overproduction and climate crisis, we question the purpose of duplication. Producing more and more items means taking responsibility for causing harm to the world,” adds Federica Sala, a co-curator of the “Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty”, together with Anna Maga. They tell Basia Czyżewska about the development of the modernist design concept and the challenges that the industrial design faces today.
The location of the exhibition is also significant. The works by Katarzyna Kobro, Bohdan Lachert, but also Tomek Rogalik and Maja Ganszyniec will be displayed in the interiors arranged by the Studio of Zofia Wyganowska located in Torre Velasca — a 28-storey skyscraper, which has been towering over the city of Milan since the mid-1950s. Maria Fredro-Smoleńska takes a close look at this visionary, symbolic and once controversial architectural design by the BBPR studio. Basia Czyżewska gives us more insight into the creative work of Paweł Olszczyński — an artist, who will present an original ceramic composition referring to not only the legacy of wall mosaics from the communist era, but also to a famous sculpture titled “Rhythm”, which made Henryk Kuna famous at the exhibition in Paris in 1925.
