Polish design

The first time for the Polish schools in Milan, at the Superdesign Show curated by Dorota Koziara, revealed the historical roots of the schools, linked to local manufacturing. #MDW2017

Polish Design, veduta della mostra, Superdesign show 2017
For the Polish schools, this was the first visit to Milan Design Week, with an installation at the Superdesign Show curated by the Milan-based Polish designer Dorota Koziara. The exhibition revealed the historical roots and vivacity of the schools, which are characterised by specialisations linked to local manufacturing.

 

A quality of Poland’s public education is that it has typically maintained its design schools within the scope of its art academies. However, over time these schools have nurtured and developed a variety of specialisations in industrial product design, with investments in the expansion of workshops and laboratories – such as the professional glass and ceramic furnaces at the academy in Wrocław, or the fashion runway at the academy in Łódź, an important centre for textiles. The academy in Katowice, meanwhile, focuses on graphic design and animation, since this was ground zero for the tradition of high-quality animated film that has won success in Eastern Europe and beyond.

The fact that design students boast an education that also embraces art – and in this respect it’s unusual to find the combination of music conservatory and design school at the academy in Szczecin – doesn’t seem to be a diminution. On the contrary. It’s certainly not critical design, but direct training in the profession for industry.
Polish Design, exhibition view, Superdesign show 2017
Polish Design, exhibition view, Superdesign show 2017
To Milan, the schools brought projects spotlighting their local territorial roots, such as cutlery with amber inserts from the academy in Gdańsk, a city near major deposits of this precious material, or the elaborate glassware from Wrocław, where many glassworks are located. But there were also clothes from Łódź and city redevelopment projects from Katowice, the country’s most industrialised zone. One fine exception was the academy in Cracow, which presented a single project featuring the work of several students: Mars 2030, envisaging objects needed for life on a spaceship heading to Mars, created in collaboration with the NASA Ames Research Center.
Polish Design, exhibition view, Superdesign show 2017
Polish Design, exhibition view, Superdesign show 2017

3–9 April 2017
Polish Design
curated by Dorota Koziara
Superstudio Più
via Tortona, 27 Milan

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