Enfant terrible by 00mit00

Enfant terrible

Curators: Magdalena Frankowska, Artur Frankowski, Zofia Machnicka

06.09.13 - 13.10.13 Centre for Fine Arts Brussels BOZAR

Take it easy, they’re only posters In the milieu of contemporary Polish graphic design, the word ‘poster’ is no stranger to controversy. For some graphic designers, it is synonymous with a work of art which, beyond its practical function in the public space, ought to respond to the highest aesthetic demands made by visitors of art galleries or museums. Others see nothing more exceptional in the making of posters than they do in the production of shoes: they should be nice and useful. For some, designing a poster is a way of fulfilling their artistic ambitions whilst others stress the strictly utilitarian nature of their projects. There are people who see the poster as the ‘queen of graphic designs’ and who would give their right arm for someone to commission one from them, going so far as to do everything in their power to incite people to place such an order, even if others consider the poster to be a field which does not differ in the slightest from other forms of graphic work, such as logos, editing and information. Some graphic designers create selfedited posters for themselves or for several exhibitions and competitions, printing out a limited number of them, whilst others prefer not to design any at all, so opposed are they to the idea of ‘artificially provoking’ commissions. One thing is for sure: designing a poster is far from neutral in Poland; what’s more, whether or not one is the creator of the poster does not just determine ones place in the artistic or cultural

field, it also amounts to ‘taking a stance’ vis-a-vis the Polish tradition of graphic design. In order to understand the emotions connected to the status of the poster and its designers in Poland today, one needs to go back to the 1950’s and 1960’s, when the poster acquired a status never previously attained. It began to be included in the category of works of art and its designer was afforded the kind of esteem normally reserved for artists dealing with ‘pure domains’. It is linked to an artistic phenomenon generally referred to as ‘the Polish Poster School’, whose heyday lasted from the mid 50’s until the end of the ‘60s and which is linked to the names of designers such as Henryk Tomaszewski, Tadeusz Trepkowski, Jan Lenica, Roman Cieślewicz, Jan Młodożeniec, Waldemar Świerzy or Franciszek Starowieyski. These designers had the drive and the need to strip the poster of the role of telegrapher once put forward by Cassandre. What they saw in the poster was not just an effective promotional medium but far more a means of artistic expression. As Lenica wrote, they were aware of the fact that «their efforts to listen to what the poster had to say were rather utopian and made one think of the horse who wanted to fly», whilst remaining convinced that «the thing that proves the value of the poster is not what it has to put across, but rather what it has to say»1. These words were spoken by Lenica at the conference held to mark the opening of the Ist International Poster Biennale at Warsaw’s Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in 1966, when the artistic status of the poster as a work of art and the role of its designer as a fully-fledged artist was officially recognised as much by the communist powers (which allowed the conference to be held) as by cultural bodies: art historians, curators and art critics, in Poland and abroad. The Polish cultural poster enjoyed a reputation as a genuine artistic phenomenon whose main characteristic was the designer’s artistic relationship with the theme explored in the work. This relationship was based on the creation of metaphors and symbols that were so many commentaries on the topic presented via free

1. Documentation from the conference held to mark the Ist Warsaw International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, 1966, p. 25.

forms of expression, which had their origins in painting or drawing, via handwritten lettering. The foreign press gave considerable thought to this phenomenon of the ‘creative freedom’ of Polish poster designers in the country behind the Iron Curtain. Indeed, some western graphic designers went so far as to state that political censorship in Poland restricted creative freedom to a lesser extent than economic censorship did in a capitalist system. Many design students from abroad who were fascinated by the Polish creative system flocked to Warsaw to study this creative method under Tomaszewski, an internationally renowned master. The creative freedom of Polish poster designers which could be witnessed in formal experimentation and in the artist’s personal form of expression was a phenomenon which certainly made its mark on the country during the time of the communist regime. Designers such as Tomaszewski, Trepkowski or Mroszczak made it known to political dignitaries at a very early stage (as early as the 1950’s) that the fact that the plastic arts had been subjected to the doctrine of socialist realism since 1949 did not satisfy either the designer or the public. Thanks to the determination of the designers as well as the way political events interwove in an expedient way following the death of Stalin in March 1953, Polish graphic artists were able to try their hand at the formal field to an even greater extent than painters. In the 1960’s, the cultural policy of People’s Poland changed course. Dignitaries realised that the cultural poster, which was beginning to be recognised in exhibitions and competitions in Europe, could serve their political goals in a more effective fashion than the political posters promoting socialist realism. Amongst other things, the idea was to show that in communist countries, cultural events were surpassing those which were being carried out under western political conditions. Riding this propaganda wave, the Polish poster became the best-known of ‘exportable products’ and one of the fields of art which benefitted from the protection of those in power. Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne (Artistic and

Graphic Editions) and the Centrala Wynajmu Filmów (Film Leasing Office) became for graphic artists a stable and sure source of commissions for cultural posters, especially for the theatre and the cinema. These publishing houses thus became real patrons in this field, insofar as they did not interfere with the composition of the poster and gave the graphic designers free rein to express themselves artistically. Provided that the poster did not openly criticise the system, it was fairly easy to dodge the censor. The social, artistic and also financial status of the poster designer was very high in People’s Poland. Many press articles mentioned the various exhibitions and the press was happy to publish interviews with the ‘stars’ of the poster world such as Tomaszewski and Lenica. Anyone looking for a symbol of the enhanced status of the graphic artist might point to the white shirts bought daily by Świerzy et Cieślewicz on the path which led from their office (WAG, Smolna Street 10), to the café ‘Kameralna’. «We were rich back then. (...) On our way to the café ‘Kameralna’, we used to buy white shirts every day. At the time, an elegant shirt cost around 55 zlotys. In the studio, we had a cupboard, a cupboard full of shirts which had only been used once»2, as Świerzy recalls. The foundation of the International Poster Biennale in 1966 and the Wilanów Poster Museum in 1968 (as a separate department of the National Museum in Warsaw) were unprecedented events which reinforced the place of this medium in the field of art and gave the designer the status of an artist. The triumphant way in which the poster wrote itself into art history during the second half of the XXth century proved to be a difficult legacy for free Poland. In the reality of early capitalism in the 1990’s, the method of design which had been directly inherited from Tomaszewski was somewhat polemical. It was not just based on transferring information in an intelligent, metaphorical or humorous way, but also on the way to express a commentary by the author-designer which was in line with his or her own artistic vision. The dynamic manner in which advertising agencies developed post-1989

2. Świerzy W., «Co dzień biała koszula» (White shirt every day) in: Grabowska-Konwent, A., Roman Cieślewicz 1930-1996, exhibition catalogue, National Museum in Poznań, 2006, p. 46.

changed the relationship towards the way a poster was created: the latter often became the finished product of a team effort, the result of a marketing strategy in which it was the commissioner who has the last word and no longer the graphic artist alone. One of the consequences was the violent drop in the status of the adman who, almost overnight, was demoted from the role of artist, creator, author, to that of co-author, a tiny cog in a huge machine. The period of transforming the system corresponded to that of the technological revolution which marginalised the signification of the poster as the main conduit of information in the public space whilst the availability of computers and digital printing methods meant everyone could call themselves a poster designer. The way the poster was dethroned was painful for those involved in devising them; many predicted its imminent demise. Alain Le Quernec, a French graphic artist, who was an intern under Tomaszewski in 1972, depicted this new situation perfectly in the poster for the exhibition Złoty wiek plakatu polskiego (The Golden Age of the Polish Poster) presenting a piece of the Berlin wall which was crumbling, taking with it the posters which were stuck to it. «When the old media become a problem, this is a clear sign that their position within culture has changed»3, as Maryla Hopfinger rightly observed in her book entitled Doświaczenia audiowizualne. O mediach w kulturze współczesnej (Audiovisual experiences. On media in contemporary culture). The poster is the problematic medium of the beginning of the XXIst century of transformation to which we can bear witness. Even though after 1989, it had passed the baton of leader of the communication scene to other media, its position as an autonomous domain of art became stronger, all the same. The cultural poster took refuge inside or around theatres, cinemas and clubs as well as in galleries and museums where its aesthetic values were appreciated by a highly specialist audience. In practice, it took on a stronger role in the field of art at the same time as the street was becoming

3. Hopfinger M., Doświaczenia audiowizualne. O mediach w kulturze współczesnej (Audiovisual experiences. On media in contemporary culture), Sic!, Warsaw, 2003, p. 131.

more like a theatre, staging the struggle for the time and money of a mass clientele. The contemporary graphic design scene resumed after a difficult period of transformation. The position of the graphic artist replaced that of the «man-as-system designer of the Renaissance» who, in his desire to make his mark, in spite of a commissions market which remains difficult, must prove he is competent in all kinds of fields, spanning logo design, creating internet pages and the page layout in editing. In the 1990’s, there was not a lot of space on the advertising market between the basic advert and ‘high art’. The situation began to change at the turn of the century: over the course of the last fifteen years, a large number of new studios have come into being, introducing a new quality into Polish advertising. The team work of the Zafryki studio, created in 1991 by Piotr Młodożeniec and Marek Sobczyk, is very highly valued. Piotr Rypson described the studio, attesting to its services in the field of poster design and functional graphic material, as «the best thing to happen to Polish graphic design in the 1990’s»4. Its creations were a link between Młodożeniec’s street art, which used stencils, sprays and serigraphy, and Sobczyk’s pictorial roots, (Sobczyk was a member, in the 1980’s, of the famous Gruppa). Studios set up at the beginning of the noughties by former students of the Academy of Fine Arts, Bakalie or Mamastudio for example, had a different character. Their creators wanted, for one thing, to oppose the corporate tyranny of advertising agencies and, for another, to develop areas of graphic design such as branding, visual identification or designing information, an area that was neglected by People’s Poland, which focused all its attentions on promoting the poster. Other artistic studios, Headmade, Fontarte, Hakobo or Homework, affect a clientele from the cultural sector which, after a fraught period of transformation, is beginning to find its way out of a hole and offer graphic designers a greater freedom in carrying out their projects. They deal with graphic design in a very

4. Rypson P., On the internet: http://akson. sgh.waw.pl/~jtermi/ zafryki/katalog/texts/ texts1.html.

broad sense of the word even though they each have their own field. Fontarte comes up with the character fonts, Homework with the posters, Hipopotam children’s books. The present situation on the commissions market is so stable that a large number of art school graduates are taking the risk of banking on it; new design studios are cropping up everywhere, bringing professionalism, creativity and a range of services to the sphere of Polish graphic design, something which the contemporary communication scene is crying out for. In the same way, many commercial artists from the ‘old generation’, Lech Majewski or Maciej Buszewicz for example, have rapidly moved their atelier into line with the needs of the market by broadening the spectrum of their activities in graphic art in order to encompass editing. After all, to put it bluntly, poster designers have had their day and contemporary culture needs multi-talented graphic designers who are able to work skilfully in the various fields of design and art. «The current boundaries when it comes to specialisations are impossible to respect, whether you’re talking about a student or a designer who is already working. The three dimensional projects merge with films, which call for a public presentation, which in turn demands a poster with a link to an internet site. The latter is created on the basis of a book about animation on the theme of a building. Art and design, Francisco Laranjo continues, push the designer to analyse these questions deeply. Pluralism is the only ‘-ism’ which continues to haunt the corridors which separate the different fields, sections and specialisms within the framework of design»5. Some designers feel the need to exist in an intensive way on the artistic terrain, such as the studio Fontarte which, in cooperation with curators, carries out conceptual projects like the one which involves creating posters for non-existant exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw. These projects assign new semantic spheres to old media. In spite of the uncoordinated movement which prevails in different domains of design and art, designers from

5. Laranjo F., «Poza zasadę hybrydyczności» (Beyond the principle of hybridity), in: Nerwowa drzemka. O poszerzaniu pola w projektowaniu (A nervous nap. On expanding the field in design), edited by Cichocki S. & Świątkowska B., Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, Warsaw, 2009, p. 53.

the intermediality period do not lay claim to the title of artist. «I am not an artist», claimed Grzegorz Laszuk in May 2013 in his performance entitled «Why I killed the Polish School of Poster» at the international conference Typo Berlin devoted to the problems facing graphic art and design. The graphic artist continues: «In my view, the poster designer is like someone who makes shoes. Posters, just like shoes, should be nice and useful». The return to the watchword ‘utility’, with its modernist and original connotations, is the calling card of contemporary Polish design. Laszuk and a large group of more established graphic artists take a stand in this way by opposing the phenomenon of the Polish art poster, contesting the elevation of the graphic designer to the title of artist. They are happy to reach out to the world of photography and consider typography to have great weight, but they keep their distance from painting, drawing or handwritten lettering, which is so beloved of the Polish masters of the poster. The legacy of the Polish Poster School is not something which causes controversy for all graphic artists of the young generation and those of more years’ standing. There are many who continue to view it as current and inspiring and work to keep alive the way of thinking of the masters of the Polish poster. In the work of Sebastian Kubica, Monika Starowicz, Ryszard Kajzer or studio Homework one can observe the influences of the Polish Poster School, both stylistically speaking and in the way they have of solving graphic problems in a swift, even comic fashion. The style of all of the graphic artists mentioned is an original mixture of an illustrative style, handwritten lettering and an intense use of colours linked to contemporary themes and instruments which tie in with life in this new century. The new trend is to look for roots in the creations of designers working in the 1920’s, in the inter-war period, who were stigmatised by political dignitaries at the time of People’s Poland for representing the capitalist system which was so loathed. The idea of the designer creating functional projects

to meet the needs of industry, advertising or culture, and who at the same time derives his inspiration from existing artistic creations, is close to many Polish designers. The avant-garde advertising which is connected to a dynamic style of typography and to photography, reminding us of the work of the constructivists, Henryk Berlewi, Mieczysław Szczuka, Mieczysław Berman or Teresa Żarnowerówna, is, for many Polish designers, an endless source of inspiration. The contemporary graphic design scene in Poland is still looking for its own identity. A sense of tension can be detected between the ambivalent link to national tradition, which is very present in the case of the poster, and the absorption of the rich arsenal of global trends. What sets Polish graphic designs apart from one another these days? There are many designers who have no need to take part in creating a national form of graphic design. The authors presented as part of this exhibition have no hang-ups vis-à-vis great masters, but they tend, albeit with a certain amount of reserve, to veer towards whatever is in fashion in the world of graphic art. And what drives them most of all is their own creative dynamic. Katarzyna Matul

Enfant terrible In the XXth century, many design critics and graphic artists/designers put forward a whole raft of original definitions and musings, at times contradictory, on the subject of graphic design. In Poland, it was designers from what was dubbed the Polish Poster School, such as Henryk Tomaszewski, Jan Lenica or Roman Cieślewicz who made their mark in this field. It would appear that at the beginning of this new century, there is a need to redefine this idea and ask ourselves whether, in the era of globalisation, the graphic project can differ from one country to the next. One of the most interesting contemporary definitions of design in this field was coined by Jessica Helfand, an American graphic designer and writer. In her view, graphic design is «a visual language uniting harmony and balance, color and light, scale and tension, form and content. But it is also an idiomatic language, a language of cues and puns and symbols and allusions, of cultural references and perceptual inferences that challenge both the intellect and the eye»1. What is most striking about Helfand’s definition is the role of the cultural conscience and the signification of content in graphic design. It thus seems to follow that our tradition, our language and our cultural identity have a great influence on contemporary graphics. But can we therefore talk in such tones about the phenomenon of Polish graphic design? And, within this movement, can we talk about the Polish poster? Over the last ten years, a dynamic development in commercial graphic design has made its presence felt in Poland.

1. Cited in: Postrel V., The Substance of Style, Harper Collins, New York, 2003.

It was influenced by a whole host of factors linked, inter alia, to economic development and the IT revolution. Poland joining the European Union prompted the creation of new cultural institutions and new events as well as the development of those that already existed: museums, film and theatre festivals, concerts, exhibitions. Numerous independent cultural institutions have come into being, as well as clubs and spaces offering a place to think freely and create works of art. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no accident that in the exhibition Enfant terrible we can find work by Polish graphic designers whose origins can be traced back to commissions linked to this milieu. Collaborating on projects of this kind very often allows designers to seek out forms of expression that are out of the ordinary, but at the same time it sets the bar very high with regard to the expectations and demands on the part of the contractors. Wearing both the hat of the professionally-active designers and that of observers taking in the Polish graphic design scene, we have the opportunity to be involved in the most innovative phenomena in this field. The posters presented during the exhibition Enfant terrible. La nouvelle affiche polonaise (Enfant terrible. The new Polish Poster) are the result of a selection of several dozens of works by Polish graphic designers currently active in the field, from the young generation and more established artists. For around fifteen years, Poland has provided the stage for the emergence of a new phenomenon in the field of the poster or the projet rĂŠflĂŠchi, with an effective response to the questions asked taking the place of the anecdote, the artistic gesture and artistic expression. Its designers are not just the creators of professional posters, they are also illustrators, visual artists or even photographers. The strict difference between poster designers and designers from other fields of graphic design is fading away. The new Polish poster which no-one can take their eyes off is a poster whose designers are trying out various techniques such as photography, collage, painting, freehand drawing or even a combination of all these methods.

The posters brought together for the exhibition Enfant terrible have an original and modern form, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no accident if they present a topic area linked to culture in a very broad sense, including club culture and the culture which embraces the phenomena of niches. It is this very thematic area and the financial backers of this type which make it possible for artists really to experiment with form, as they attract the attention of the spectator through their authenticity and freedom of tone. And, in practice, this collaboration often gives rise to original, high-class projects which open up new perspectives. The posters presented as part of the exhibition are a subjective selection which, we hope, will allow us to show the new phenomena which are appearing on the Polish graphic art scene at the moment of their conception. The pieces of work chosen differ in terms of style, but one is often struck by the appearance of visions of bodies, human, animal, or even hybrid, silhouettes. Their creators play around with aesthetic conventions, macabre, grotesque and sexual references. These are defiant posters, the enfants terribles selected precisely because of the brave and intelligent way they have of addressing the subject at hand and seeking out graphic solutions which are original and very much their own. Magdalena Frankowska and Artur Frankowski

Posters

Agata Dudek

Ania Goszczyńska

MaĹ&#x201A;gorzata Gurowska

HOMEWORK

HAKOBO

29 Michał Jońca

Agata Krรณlak

31 Olka OsadziĹ&#x201E;ska

33 Aleksandra Niepsuj

Noviki Studio Grafiki

36 Michael Okraj

Krystian Kujda

Studio Fontarte

40 (with Ania GoszczyĹ&#x201E;ska, Bartek Pakulski)

Aleksandra Waliszewska

Artists

Agata Dudek

Born in 1984 in Warsaw, she studied in illustration workshops held by Prof. Zygmunt Januszewski and Monika Hanulak at Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. She deals with graphic design destined for publication, in the broad sense of the term, chiefly illustration. Amongst other things, she draws for the weekly Newsweek Polska, as well as PANI, Zwierciadło, Exberliner, Nestle, etc. Since 2010, she has worked as co-director of the Illustration workshop at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. She grapples with forms and colours to meet the needs of Studio Acapulco. She is a good cook and is mad about cherries. www.agatadudek.pl

Ania Goszczyńska

Works in graphic design and illustration. A graduate of the Industrial Design Faculty of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, she worked for a long time as a graphic artist and industrial designer for several companies linked to the world of advertising. In parallel to this, she worked as an illustrator for magazines (Aktivist, Exklusiv, Wysokie Obcasy, stock Imagezoo) and for the company Empik, for whom she created two collections of stationery as well as a series of murals. In 2011, she obtained the KTR/Gold prize for her visual identification project

for the Warsaw Theatre Festival and another in 2012 for the best portfolio of illustrations. She is a member of STGU (Association of Applied Graphic Designers). At present, she is working as an independent illustrator. In her projects, she likes minimalism, symbolism and a limited palette of colours. www.behance.net/mums

Małgorzata Gurowska

A graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, which is her current employer. She is interested in graphic art, video art, art installations and drawing. She is currently developing the Fundacja Sztuczna. From 2003 until 2005, she was director of Z o.o., Warsaw’s independent art gallery, which later became Galeria Ltd. She works with the Teatr Powszechny and the Studio theatre Gallery. She has links to the Bęc Zmiana Foundation and STGU (Association of Applied Graphic Designers). She has received prizes and has exhibited her work in Poland and abroad. She lives and works in Warsaw.

Homework (Joanna Górska and Jerzy Skakun)

Graduates of the Painting Faculty of the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts. From 2003 they have been working in their own graphic studio named Homework. They design posters, work on printing graphics and graphic works for cultural events. Their works were exhibited (among other places) in Paris, Berlin, London, New York

and Hong Kong. They are prizewinners of several competitions. The most important of their achievements are: gold medal for Poster Biennale in Mexico, silver medal on International Biennale of Poster in Chicago, Grand Prix for the Akobi calendar in vidical competition, and also The Józef Mroszczak Honorary Award at XXI Poster Biennale in Warsaw. Joanna Górska and Jerzy Skakun work with cultural institutions such as: Polish Theater in Bydgoszcz, New Horizons Association, Vivarto, Mañana and Pułaski Museum in Warka. www.homework.com.pl

Michał Jońca

Born in 1979, this multi-purpose designer, who is by turns a graphic artist, a commercial artist, illustrator, animator, designer of artistic exhibitions, objects and installations, has taken part in exhibitions in Poland and abroad, notably in Berlin, Brussels, Havana and Tokyo. He received first prize in the competition for urban and architectural regeneration of parts of Warsaw at the SARP competition, making a particular impression in the architecture and poster competitions. He is the co-author of the ‘Szopieżwał’, a ‘supercharacter conglomerate’ of important Polish personalities in detachable parts destined to be mounted. When he is not working, he explores different niches in terms of hobbies, but his work also has a practical side: he builds kites, is passionate about 8mm film and enjoys collecting mushrooms.

Agata Królak

Born in 1987, she studied at the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts. She has published books as a graphic artist and illustrator (Straszko, Ciasta ciastka i takie tam, Robimisie, Różnimisie) and also illustrates for magazines and creates posters. She took part in the 23rd Poster Biennale in Wilanów and the 24th Illustration Biennale in Bratislava. She was the winner of the Cow International Design Festival in 2013. www.agatakrolak.pl

Krystian Kujda

Works in photography. He is the organiser of vhs hell – a cycle of screenings of B movies from the period of the video recorder. He is a collector. He is professionally employed by the Office of the Alderman for Culture in the city of Gdańsk.

Aleksandra Niepsuj

(b. 1986), Aleksandra is an ambitious and enterprising young graphic designer and illustrator. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in 2010, obtaining a MA in Editorial Design. Meanwhile she studied in Portugal in Escola Superior de Artes e Design in Matosinhos and Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto. She was awarded the National Heritage Scholarship by the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Rector’s Grant by the Academy of Fine Art in Łódź.

Aleksandra combines collage, pencil, ink and paint with digital media to create her humorous and idiosyncratic images. Renowned for her playful characters and distinctive flexible style, she has added an optimistic feel to every job she’s been assigned to. She has taken part in many exhibitions in Poland and abroad. www.aleksandraniepsuj.blogspot.com

Noviki Studio Grafiki

Uses different media to carry out its work in the very large field of visual communication based on the idea of graphic design as a way of describing and identifying interesting phenomena emerging from the world of art and culture. Amongst Studio Noviki’s regular collaborators are Krytyka Polityczna and the Warsaw Museum of Contemporary Art, for whom they created, inter alia, the graphic identification of the Instytut Studiów Zaawansowanych, a project for an opinion-based newspaper on the internet and a project for a general exhibition for the third edition of the Warszawa w Budowie festival. Featured amongst the works carried out in collaboration with contemporary artists, we can find publications by Mirosław Bałka, Aleksandra Wasilkowska, Piotr Bosacki and an identification project for events by Jakub Banasiak’s Kolonie Gallery, Bródno Statue Park and events linked to the Art and Architecture Laboratory – Bazaristan. Studio Noviki’s projects received first prize at

the European competition Ed-Awards and they were also presented at international graphic art exhibitions and at festivals on the theme of the dialogue between art and technology (Node13 – Forum for Digital Art). Its works have been published, notably in ‘Pretty Ugly: Visual Rebellion in Design’ and ‘Introducing: Culture Identities’ published by Gestalten. www.noviki.net

Michael Okraj

Born in Gdańsk, lives and works in Berlin. At least, most of the time. Being a true explorer at heart, he can‘t really stay still and so he travels – between countries, nationalities and the multiple facets of his career – constantly pushing the boundaries of accepted standards in design. Michael Okraj started working as a graphic designer in 2002, quickly gaining expertise in all fields of classical and digital media. He founded designerdeutsch, his own design studio in 2003, and to this day is the editor-in-chief of designkritik, the first German internet platform dedicated to design theory. Although raised beyond the borders of his motherland he is a passionate promoter of Polish graphic design, photography and poster art. www.designerdeutsch.de

Olka Osadzińska

Illustrator. She has done internships in prestigious graphic design studios: New York’s Vault 49 and the Berlin Hort Studio. In July 2012 the trainers Reebok Betwixt Mid by Olka Osadzińska made their first appearance: this was a project that she created at the invitation of the Reebok company and which one could find in the finest boutiques in the world. She also designed posters and record covers; she was also the creative force behind the advertising campaign for Jan Komasa’s film ‘Sala Samobójców’. In 2010, her work appeared in the book ‘The Beautiful. Illustration for Fashion and Style’ published by the German publishing house Die Gestalten. With Barbara Hulanicki, she also directed the Fashion Illustration workshops as part of the Poznań Art & Fashion Festival. She has worked with reviews such as Commons&Sense, D la Reppublica, Highsnobiety, Viva! Moda, Glamour and Twój Styl, as well as with companies like Condé Nast, Plus GSM, Nike, Reebok, Hugo Boss, Max Factor, Jägermeister, BGK and many more.

Jakub Stępień aka Hakobo

(1976) was listed among the world’s top fifty most important poster artists (according to John Foster, author of ‘New Masters of Poster Design: Poster Design for the Next Century’). He feels at home in visual identity, activities bordering art and design and the generally understood utilitarian graphics. He col-

laborates with many cultural institutions, e.g. The Art Museum in Łódź, CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, Design Gallery BWA Wrocław, Tate Britain. His clients include Pogo, The Łódź Design Festival, Wyborowa, Polish TV and others. He has a characteristic style, inspired by traditional graphic crafts as well as street culture. His collection of works consists of both disciplined, simple arrangements and those inspired by his fascination with camouflage, graphic noise and the excessive. www.hakobo.art.pl

Studio Fontarte

is the creative duo Artur Frankowski and Magdalena Frankowska. The studio was established in 2004 in Warsaw. Artur and Magdalena work on a range of projects including art direction, editorial design and custom typography for arts & culture clients as Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Gallery BWA Design Wrocław, Zachęta National Gallery of Art and Polish Institutes. Works of Fontarte are often defined by original letter forms and their own typographic style. Magdalena and Artur are particularly interested in activities that connect art and design. They also contribute writing to various journals, give lectures, curate events on international graphic and book design. In 2010 Fontarte curated the exhibition of new Polish graphic design ‘Eye on Poland’ in Shanghai, Nanjing and Bejing. Artur is a professor of typography and graphic design at the Faculty

of Industrial Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and at the Warsaw University of Technology. Magdalena and Artur are the authors of ‘Henryk Berlewi’ (2009) book about a precursor of modern typography and graphic design. www.fontarte.com

Aleksandra Waliszewska

Born in 1976. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She repeatedly received the Ministry of Culture scholarship. Her work has been published by Editions Timeless, My Dance the Skull, FUKT, United Dead Artists, Les Editions Du 57, Drippy Bone Books, Editions Kaugummi to mention only few. Her works have been used on covers such as Chicaloyoh, Scarcity of Tanks, Mike Doherty, and the Populist series issued by Bolt Records. In 2012, Athina Rachel Tsangari, a Greek director, made a film ‘The Capsule’ inspired by her works. Waliszewska is also the co-scriptwriter and played a supporting role in the film. It was commissioned by Dakis Ioannou / Deste Foundation, filmed on the island of Hydra in Greece and premiered at Documenta XIII in Kassel. In 2013 she was awarded the AECA prize for best foreign artist at ARCO Art Fair in Madrid. Lives and works in Warsaw.

coordination: Dieter Van Der Storm, Zofia Machnicka scenography: Isabelle Speybrouck realization: Polish Institute in Brussels, BOZAR. Center for Fine Arts, Brussels Exhibition presented in the frames of the festival Design September.

catalogue Place Flagey 18, 1050 Brussels Tel: (32) 2 554 06 90 e-mail: bruxelles@instytutpolski.org www.polishculture.eu

exhibition

‘Enfant terrible’ logo design: Fontarte

Enfant terrible. New Polish Poster BOZAR Center for Fine Arts, Brussels 6.09 – 13.10.2013

texts: Magdalena Frankowska and Artur Frankowski, Katarzyna Matul

artists: Agata Dudek, Ania Goszczyńska, Małgorzata Gurowska, Hakobo (Jakub Stępień), Homework (Joanna Górska & Jerzy Skakun), Michał Jońca, Agata Królak, Krystian Kujda, Aleksandra Niepsuj, Noviki Studio Grafiki (Katarzyna Nestorowicz & Marcin Nowicki), Michael Okraj, Olka Osadzińska, Studio Fontarte (Artur Frankowski & Magdalena Frankowska), Aleksandra Waliszewska

printed by Drukarnia Klimiuk

translations: Leah Maitland

curators of the exhibition: Magdalena Frankowska, Artur Frankowski, Zofia Machnicka