czwartek, 8 kwietnia 2010
sobota, 13 marca 2010
czwartek, 4 marca 2010
SZTUKA W PRZESTRZENI PUBLICZNEJ
Klub Krytyki Politycznej Na Śląsku zaprasza na wykład pt:
„Sztuka w przestrzeni publicznej- część pierwsza”
wykład poprowadzi: Stanisław Ruksza
9 marca (wtorek) 2010 godzina 19 00
Klub Krytyki Politycznej ul. Zamkowa 1 Cieszyn
Stanisław Ruksza – historyk sztuki, kurator wystaw. Dyrektor programowy CSW Kronika. Autor kilkudziesięciu tekstów o sztuce współczesnej. Współkoordynuje Klub Krytyki Politycznej na Śląsku. Ostatnio m.in. rezydent apexart w Nowym Jorku.
Wstep wolny zapraszamy!!!!
niedziela, 14 lutego 2010
essay nr 2
Jewish issue and Holocaust problems
in Polish socially engaged art.
Poland is one of those countries where modern art has more and more to say in cases connected with politics. Artists want to be closer to ordinary people. They want to response to their needs; satisfy the requirements of ideology and existence, instead of aesthetics only. That is why they not only go into the public space, but they try also to talk about important for us subjects.
By important subject I mean still not solved case of Jewish minorities, which touches lots of fields of our life. This subject is concerned with holocaust, concentration camps, anti- Semitism, and appropriation of Jewish properties by socialist country as well as with memory of our common history – of Polish Jews and Poles living together before the Second World War.
My documentary tries to tell about the problems which result from lack of knowledge or understanding of Polish society. Sometimes this unawareness is not only incomprehensible for foreigners what is logical because they are from a different cultural area, but very often this subjects is not clear even for us- Poles. It could seem that case of Jews who were removed to concentration camps, holocaust, immigrations and emigrations is such obvious part of our history, that everybody should know this. But it is only the misguided belief, so it stimulate artists to remember the past, and on the other hand once for good get the better of echo from the past by means of their work.
To make this documentary clear, we should mention some important facts. before the Second World War Jewish minority accounted for 10 % of Polish society. At that time Israel did not exist as an independent country, and most of Jews emigrated to Poland from Germany in the XIX century. It was a result of increasing amount of anti- Semitic movements.
Unfortunately, not every Pole liked to have Jews as neighbours. Religious differences and economy were underlying reasons of aversion to newcomers. Jews could adjust rather easily to new conditions, since for hundreds of years they existed as a nomadic population. It was not a problem to learn new languages. Children had to start education as three years old, therefore they did not have any problems with acquiring new language. Thanks that they were account for a big number of the polish intelligentsia. They were especially doctors, lawyers, companies owners. These things made Poles jealous, so anti- Semitic movements, protests and demonstrations were growing up very quickly. Propaganda made people to believe that the Second World War was Jewish fault.
What is worst, we can observe that some people still believe in those stereotypes.
In his work titled ‘Pole in the closed,’ Artur Żmijewski tries to turn viewers attention to this problem. This video art shows us students from the Institute of Applied Social Sciences
and anthropology department of Collegium Civitas. They are trying to tell in their own way about Karol de Prevot’s painting, which depicts Jews performing ritual murder and is connected with situation which happened in Sandomierz (a town in the South-East of Poland) many years ago. This film shows the insularity of Polish society, their unwise beliefs that the Pope John Paul II or our previous president Aleksander Kwaśniewski were Jews. The most terrifying thing which should really scare us is that they truly believe in what they are saying, and ask ourselves why we can hear an unjustified hate in their voice? The parish priest of the Cathedral , seems to do nothing with the painting. He seems unaware of the fact that this kind of propaganda can have a huge influence on people, especially on those uneducated.
The second film ‘Bad Dreams’ is also Zmijewski's work. It was not a coincident that the artist has chosen Sławomir Sierakowski to take a part in it. Sierakowski is an editor in chief of Krytyka Polityczna (KP)(‘Political Critique’)1 which is Poland's largest left-wing circle of intellectuals and activists. It is important to emphasize that almost nobody from the right- wing circle would take part in this kind of project. In Poland right-wing groups of young people are very conservative, they do not tolerate minorities, people from different cultural space, homosexuals, and feminists.
An action of that film takes place on 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw, which has a symbolical meaning. ” The stadium was constructed mostly with rubble from buildings destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.” The stadium was used also for aims of propaganda: demonstrations, meetings, assemblies of socialist Poland. In last few years this was also a big market, where people especially from Asia, very often illegal immigrants, were selling their products in that forgotten area.
In that part of the film which I am showing, Sierakowski is standing in the middle of the stadium. He is calling Jews. But there is only an empty field, no people, no Jews around. He does not see the difference between Jews and Poles. For him they are the same, they are people. He is asking Poles and in the name of all Polish people about the past and relations with Jews, and in the same time he emphasizes that all of us should think about this subject.
Nowadays Polish art seems to be very connected with politics. Artists rather stand on the left- wing. They lead a dialogue with situation which goes on in the country. Art was ignored by many people, especially by politicians. That is the reason why polish art wants to shock and broaches the taboo subjects/breaks the taboo. Young artist Wilhelm Sasnal in an interview for KP about art says ‘In my opinion, this is a disagreement on this that is happening in this country. Somewhere there we are mental sluggish’; and when a journalist from KP is asking what are the reasons behind connection between art and politics he responses ’I think that people are creating associations, which have some postulates in reaction, on that what is happening. Our day life is determined by politicians.’
All of the artists whose works I am showing in my documentary: Zbigniew Libera, Wilhelm Sasnal, Mirosław Bałka, Joanna Wowrzeczka, Artur Żmijewski are using different ways of expression to emphasize that this topic is important for them. All of their work is amazing and very easy to interpret. It is hard to say whose works have the biggest influence. As long as people do not recognise that it is serious problem in our society and we need to solve problems from the past, as long as they do not realise that Jews did not abduct catholic children for matzos and kill them for religious purposes, as long as they come and take revenge on poor people or judge them because they live in old Jewish houses, the artists will emphasize that this subject is still standing in a queue to be solved. People have to know that some day it is possible that we would change places and be part of ethnic minority in an intolerance country. Poles have to understand this better then people of different nationalities, because there was a time in our history when there was no Poland on the world map. That is why we should respect those things much more, and help. We should remember that everybody is equal, it does not matter where is he or she coming from, in what does he or she believe, what gender he or she is.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Pasz, Franciszek. Żydzi i my w Cieszynie. Cieszyn, 1997.
2. 10th- Anniversary Stadium From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th-Anniversary_Stadium
3.
4. Bogusław Deptuła, Marcin Krasny, Kamila Wielebska . Niejeden Sasnal.13 Dec. 2007.
5. Katarzyna Bojarska. Obecność zagłady w twórczości polskich artystów.
6. tv_KP: Sasnal o sztuce i lewicy.
7. Whitaker, Ben. Minorities: A Question of Human Rights. 1984.
Chapter 1.: What Rights Should Minorities Have?
in Polish socially engaged art.
Poland is one of those countries where modern art has more and more to say in cases connected with politics. Artists want to be closer to ordinary people. They want to response to their needs; satisfy the requirements of ideology and existence, instead of aesthetics only. That is why they not only go into the public space, but they try also to talk about important for us subjects.
By important subject I mean still not solved case of Jewish minorities, which touches lots of fields of our life. This subject is concerned with holocaust, concentration camps, anti- Semitism, and appropriation of Jewish properties by socialist country as well as with memory of our common history – of Polish Jews and Poles living together before the Second World War.
My documentary tries to tell about the problems which result from lack of knowledge or understanding of Polish society. Sometimes this unawareness is not only incomprehensible for foreigners what is logical because they are from a different cultural area, but very often this subjects is not clear even for us- Poles. It could seem that case of Jews who were removed to concentration camps, holocaust, immigrations and emigrations is such obvious part of our history, that everybody should know this. But it is only the misguided belief, so it stimulate artists to remember the past, and on the other hand once for good get the better of echo from the past by means of their work.
To make this documentary clear, we should mention some important facts. before the Second World War Jewish minority accounted for 10 % of Polish society. At that time Israel did not exist as an independent country, and most of Jews emigrated to Poland from Germany in the XIX century. It was a result of increasing amount of anti- Semitic movements.
Unfortunately, not every Pole liked to have Jews as neighbours. Religious differences and economy were underlying reasons of aversion to newcomers. Jews could adjust rather easily to new conditions, since for hundreds of years they existed as a nomadic population. It was not a problem to learn new languages. Children had to start education as three years old, therefore they did not have any problems with acquiring new language. Thanks that they were account for a big number of the polish intelligentsia. They were especially doctors, lawyers, companies owners. These things made Poles jealous, so anti- Semitic movements, protests and demonstrations were growing up very quickly. Propaganda made people to believe that the Second World War was Jewish fault.
What is worst, we can observe that some people still believe in those stereotypes.
In his work titled ‘Pole in the closed,’ Artur Żmijewski tries to turn viewers attention to this problem. This video art shows us students from the Institute of Applied Social Sciences
and anthropology department of Collegium Civitas. They are trying to tell in their own way about Karol de Prevot’s painting, which depicts Jews performing ritual murder and is connected with situation which happened in Sandomierz (a town in the South-East of Poland) many years ago. This film shows the insularity of Polish society, their unwise beliefs that the Pope John Paul II or our previous president Aleksander Kwaśniewski were Jews. The most terrifying thing which should really scare us is that they truly believe in what they are saying, and ask ourselves why we can hear an unjustified hate in their voice? The parish priest of the Cathedral , seems to do nothing with the painting. He seems unaware of the fact that this kind of propaganda can have a huge influence on people, especially on those uneducated.
The second film ‘Bad Dreams’ is also Zmijewski's work. It was not a coincident that the artist has chosen Sławomir Sierakowski to take a part in it. Sierakowski is an editor in chief of Krytyka Polityczna (KP)(‘Political Critique’)1 which is Poland's largest left-wing circle of intellectuals and activists. It is important to emphasize that almost nobody from the right- wing circle would take part in this kind of project. In Poland right-wing groups of young people are very conservative, they do not tolerate minorities, people from different cultural space, homosexuals, and feminists.
An action of that film takes place on 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw, which has a symbolical meaning. ” The stadium was constructed mostly with rubble from buildings destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.” The stadium was used also for aims of propaganda: demonstrations, meetings, assemblies of socialist Poland. In last few years this was also a big market, where people especially from Asia, very often illegal immigrants, were selling their products in that forgotten area.
In that part of the film which I am showing, Sierakowski is standing in the middle of the stadium. He is calling Jews. But there is only an empty field, no people, no Jews around. He does not see the difference between Jews and Poles. For him they are the same, they are people. He is asking Poles and in the name of all Polish people about the past and relations with Jews, and in the same time he emphasizes that all of us should think about this subject.
Nowadays Polish art seems to be very connected with politics. Artists rather stand on the left- wing. They lead a dialogue with situation which goes on in the country. Art was ignored by many people, especially by politicians. That is the reason why polish art wants to shock and broaches the taboo subjects/breaks the taboo. Young artist Wilhelm Sasnal in an interview for KP about art says ‘In my opinion, this is a disagreement on this that is happening in this country. Somewhere there we are mental sluggish’; and when a journalist from KP is asking what are the reasons behind connection between art and politics he responses ’I think that people are creating associations, which have some postulates in reaction, on that what is happening. Our day life is determined by politicians.’
All of the artists whose works I am showing in my documentary: Zbigniew Libera, Wilhelm Sasnal, Mirosław Bałka, Joanna Wowrzeczka, Artur Żmijewski are using different ways of expression to emphasize that this topic is important for them. All of their work is amazing and very easy to interpret. It is hard to say whose works have the biggest influence. As long as people do not recognise that it is serious problem in our society and we need to solve problems from the past, as long as they do not realise that Jews did not abduct catholic children for matzos and kill them for religious purposes, as long as they come and take revenge on poor people or judge them because they live in old Jewish houses, the artists will emphasize that this subject is still standing in a queue to be solved. People have to know that some day it is possible that we would change places and be part of ethnic minority in an intolerance country. Poles have to understand this better then people of different nationalities, because there was a time in our history when there was no Poland on the world map. That is why we should respect those things much more, and help. We should remember that everybody is equal, it does not matter where is he or she coming from, in what does he or she believe, what gender he or she is.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Pasz, Franciszek. Żydzi i my w Cieszynie. Cieszyn, 1997.
2. 10th- Anniversary Stadium From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th-Anniversary_Stadium
3.
4. Bogusław Deptuła, Marcin Krasny, Kamila Wielebska . Niejeden Sasnal.13 Dec. 2007.
5. Katarzyna Bojarska. Obecność zagłady w twórczości polskich artystów.
6. tv_KP: Sasnal o sztuce i lewicy.
7. Whitaker, Ben. Minorities: A Question of Human Rights. 1984.
Chapter 1.: What Rights Should Minorities Have?
wtorek, 2 lutego 2010
piątek, 8 stycznia 2010
Krytyka Polityczna
Klub Krytyki Politycznej Na Granicy zaprasza
na otwarte spotkanie:
„Psychoanaliza- sprawa polska. Lacan- część pierwsza”
Wprowadzenie do psychoanalizy Jacquesa Lacana
Prowadzenie: Michał Rauszer
12. 01. 2010 (wtorek) godzina 19 00
miejsce: Śląski Zamek Sztuki i Przedsiębiorczości
sala konferencyjna (parter)
Cieszyn
wstęp wolny zapraszamy!!!!
piątek, 11 grudnia 2009
critical studies- essay
„Sometimes designers lose sight of fundamental question: Does anybody actually want this? And when I say anybody, I don't mean geeks, I mean people like my mum, or even your mum.”
Brendan Dawes
'Graphic design is for business success. Graphic design is for therapy. Graphic design is for sale. Graphic design is for art and science. Graphic design is for artists not thinkers. ... Graphic design is for loozers. Graphic design is for the customer. Graphic design is for women only. ... Graphic design is for making information, ideas and feelings tangible. Graphic design is for people who love to know how things work.'1 Graphic design as design in general, should be for everybody. If we are saying 'everybody' it means that design have to be legible for businessman, artist and the down-and-out. It should be created for them all . Nowadays term design gained wide meaning. Today the design means graphic design, industrial design, posters design, corporate identity and a lot of the other similar fields. Peoplewho design websites, innovative chairs or posters are being called the designers. Unfortunately, we often forget about the level of presented works, about whether they are functional, whether not. To what extent, creating of one sort or another work is needed?
Let us think what actually the so-called level relies on is. Talking about design the matter is simple: the project must be legible, understandable, innovative and functional, at least should be. It seems that artists very often forget about the general rules in aid of... exactly, in aid of what?
In Poland, where design tradition it is still new, there is huge dispute over the nature of design- is it art or not? When we think of art, it is consecrated art. After all we forget that in some cases we should to go behind the example of countries like Great Britain, Germany, United States of America where this problem has been solved, and since then, some terms are separated.
Because of those not solved cases, young graduates of Academies of Fine Arts are struggling with a kind of identity. It is not an artistic identity, but identity of choosing the devices in their works, and when we can say that this is an art or design? They cannot answer questions like if their work brings some kind of message and is this message simple to read or even if it is important? This is one of the main reasons why designers do not think about whether their work will be understood positively by people and whether they will pay attention to this, and if they will so in what kind of context?
In Poland design is still in isolation from public space- the place, where people like our neighbours, friends and teachers prosper in a natural way. It seems that reception of design and art in general is rather hard. It is known that in the face of everyday problems people have different needs than contemplation of art. That is why the main job of designers is to reach those people, but reach in a bright way. Right now the recyclable wastes materials are used more and more often, especially when the young artists come into play are also engaged socially2.(*) In spite of this, on the market of the art there are very prestigious projects which will not be used in ordinary circulation. These are produced just for galleries and for privet collections. To make meters worse, the biggest item of them cannot show the audience why they were constructed and an artist are based just on his prestige3. (**)
In the internet on the website: www.culture.pl we can read that more and more companies and designers give an account of fact that good, original design is indispensable to achieve success. A lot of companies consciously choose design as a distinctive factor on the background of the market competition4 . This sentence can be the first argument for that design is dominated by the big corporations where money is swimming with streams, this shows that design is dominated by corporations, therefore design does not have a chance to reach ordinary people. Big companies commission to design interiors, furniture, corporate identity, corporate gadgets. In this kind of institution everything is beautifully harmonised. Potential customer is surrounded by an ideal space, where even the box of matches is adapted to image of the company. 5(***)And when we see it, we have to start to think. Whether to such unusual space ever anybody like teacher, cleaner or salesman allow himself to rush into that kind of space? And if yes, would not be this a big mistake, something what looks like a coup, something that moves the busily built order and hierarchy?
In Polish quarterly design magazine '2+3D' we can read an article about international design fair in Poznan6 (****). On the one hand we may say that this event gathers a lot of great designers from all of the world and also big engaged audience. On the other hand,as the author of this article notices, on this event everything what we can see is 'great'. But in that 'great' word we can detect the irony. Not quite the artistic education in the country is based on a very low level; in addition persons who design things aren't presenting the better level at all. The author points to the situation, in which departments of individual companies presenting with pride the entire arsenal of lighting accessories and different type of furniture, and they present themselves, as if they were a part of some of artistic arrangement. Authors are surpassing themselves and they believe that what they are doing is standing at the highest design level. Sometimes you just have to say that you're a designer and then people believe that you are making something extraordinary, unusual, even if your work isn't good. But how can we expect from other people awareness when designers do not know anything about their work? Unfortunately myth of the artist appointed as the divine hand is still alive in our culture and it is very possible that it will take a lot of time to change thinking about this. In some cases also artists believe that their work is unique, special, and remarkable. Therefore, very often they forget about aims connected with this work, what are his responsibilities and what the results should look like. Of course no one is perfect. You cannot be always on the top. That is why the role of curators and critics of art is to be honest and focused, and watchful. Tomasz Andrzej Rudkiewicz is the one of the well-known polish designers whose work we can see on the international arena. He worked for Nokia company, designed very interesting modern city transit.,everyday articles, trains and buses or even cash registers. He is becoming a part of the model of ideal designer, who exactly knows what are his aims, and he gets them to the highest design level. This is the person who does not have to pretend that he is the God's anointed . In his opinion the best way to reach people is the mass production. His work is at the same level as Coca- Cola bottle or very famous Italian Vespa- it is the same group of products. Unfortunately those kinds of products are still rare on design fair, where predominate more ideological than useful projects, too much expensive to introduce to mass production. It does not mean that they are not good. Some of them are really great, but they balance between conceptual art and pure design. An example of that kind of product is a module wall which was made by couple of young polish designers- Marta and Lech Rowiński.7 (*****)
When you want to be a designer you have to fight with question why, what for and for whom? Sometimes designs come into being as a result of compromises between designer and the client. It is sometimes continuous argue what is more important: idea or usefulness. The author of of a book titled 'What is the graphic design for?' Alice Twemlow quotes words of Michael Bierut who said that “it is interesting how many of us see the choice between satisfying ourselves and satisfying the client.”8 In these words we can see that there are several situations when you as a designer if you are clever you can something what is hard change in yours favour. History of art shows a lot of situations when we can find entire row of works linking these two issues . One of them is graduation work of Michal Hibner, a student of Warsaw Academy of Fine Art.. In Poland year after year there is a competition of the greatest design diplomas and Michal is one of the laureates of this competition. On the exhibition organized by quarterly design magazine '2+3D' he showed the prototype of public toilet. He adapted this toilet to individual needs of children, people on the wheelchairs and for blind. There is very simple instruction how to use it written in English, polish and in Braille alphabet. The toilet is with regulation of height of the toilet bowl and connected with the urban canalization. In addition, we can find a table for changing children's nappy, washbasin, dispenser to soap and air blowing. We could say that this is innovative project, because most Polish investors, local authorities and academic professors are forgetting to think about simple things like toilets in the public space. Hibner's project is very innovative, modern, good constructed and with great purpose and especially useful, as the good project should be like.9(******) Unfortunately we cannot say the same about very famous project of pink deer by Hanna Kukczyńskiej and Luiza Marklowska. 10 (*******)It was made for a competition to decorate the Warsaw underground station. Yes, exactly, it was made just for decoration. In fact project was noticed by Bogna Świątkowska from New Culture Foundationn 'Bęc zmiana', because that it was something out from nowhere . It means that the deers are not useful. We cannot sit on them, they are not moving, interactive, they just shine in the night. We can't hide that it is easy to notice- big pink deer standing on the pavement. Why it is so famous? Because it is something what we don't need and we don't know what to do with it, so let it be. In addition one of the deers is standing in front of Silesian Design Centre in Cieszyn. But it doesn't change the fact that this is a piece of art between kitsch and design. And right now the only attraction is to make a picture while visiting Cieszyn but this work does not include anything more. Regrettably, there is a lot projects like this and not just in Poland. When we see on the exhibition another set of salt cellars we can start doubt if more creative people who are not conformists exist?11 (********)
The truth is that sometimes designers forget about the useful side of their projects. They forget what for they make their work, for whom and what are the rules of design. Although works like pink deer and recycle projects may be fine, they will never come to light. Still, designers create them because of the exhibitions, competitions (where the only prize is money), private collections. You can ask - is it right? If the design is to never be used by simple, ordinary people, can we still say that this is design? Maybe this is some kind of design? Maybe we just need new terminology?
When you talk about Polish design, you have to know the context and then you can compare it to work of designers form other countries. It is natural that we can see the difference, but also we cannot definitely say that this way of making things is the worst. The fact is that design and also designers are treated in Poland very different that in other countries. Maybe because there is still no good definition of art and design and because of that there is still big discussion about this. And in the middle of this discussion are artists and designers who are so confused that they even do not know exactly what to do.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1.Twemlow, Alice. What is graphic design for?Hove: RotoVision, 2006.
2.Artinfo.pl gallery. “Design- the Polish roads”.
3.Budzyn, Tomasz. “International design fair?”
4.No author.
5.
6.2+3D nr30.< http://www.projektydyplomowe.pl/edycje/2007-2008/hibner-michal/>
7.Kowalska, Agnieszka. “The pink deer in Powiśle. ”
8.Antonelli, Paola. Objects of design. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003.
COMMENT: tekst trochę na potrzeby tematu stworzony... a trochę nie...
Brendan Dawes
'Graphic design is for business success. Graphic design is for therapy. Graphic design is for sale. Graphic design is for art and science. Graphic design is for artists not thinkers. ... Graphic design is for loozers. Graphic design is for the customer. Graphic design is for women only. ... Graphic design is for making information, ideas and feelings tangible. Graphic design is for people who love to know how things work.'1 Graphic design as design in general, should be for everybody. If we are saying 'everybody' it means that design have to be legible for businessman, artist and the down-and-out. It should be created for them all . Nowadays term design gained wide meaning. Today the design means graphic design, industrial design, posters design, corporate identity and a lot of the other similar fields. Peoplewho design websites, innovative chairs or posters are being called the designers. Unfortunately, we often forget about the level of presented works, about whether they are functional, whether not. To what extent, creating of one sort or another work is needed?
Let us think what actually the so-called level relies on is. Talking about design the matter is simple: the project must be legible, understandable, innovative and functional, at least should be. It seems that artists very often forget about the general rules in aid of... exactly, in aid of what?
In Poland, where design tradition it is still new, there is huge dispute over the nature of design- is it art or not? When we think of art, it is consecrated art. After all we forget that in some cases we should to go behind the example of countries like Great Britain, Germany, United States of America where this problem has been solved, and since then, some terms are separated.
Because of those not solved cases, young graduates of Academies of Fine Arts are struggling with a kind of identity. It is not an artistic identity, but identity of choosing the devices in their works, and when we can say that this is an art or design? They cannot answer questions like if their work brings some kind of message and is this message simple to read or even if it is important? This is one of the main reasons why designers do not think about whether their work will be understood positively by people and whether they will pay attention to this, and if they will so in what kind of context?
In Poland design is still in isolation from public space- the place, where people like our neighbours, friends and teachers prosper in a natural way. It seems that reception of design and art in general is rather hard. It is known that in the face of everyday problems people have different needs than contemplation of art. That is why the main job of designers is to reach those people, but reach in a bright way. Right now the recyclable wastes materials are used more and more often, especially when the young artists come into play are also engaged socially2.(*) In spite of this, on the market of the art there are very prestigious projects which will not be used in ordinary circulation. These are produced just for galleries and for privet collections. To make meters worse, the biggest item of them cannot show the audience why they were constructed and an artist are based just on his prestige3. (**)
In the internet on the website: www.culture.pl we can read that more and more companies and designers give an account of fact that good, original design is indispensable to achieve success. A lot of companies consciously choose design as a distinctive factor on the background of the market competition4 . This sentence can be the first argument for that design is dominated by the big corporations where money is swimming with streams, this shows that design is dominated by corporations, therefore design does not have a chance to reach ordinary people. Big companies commission to design interiors, furniture, corporate identity, corporate gadgets. In this kind of institution everything is beautifully harmonised. Potential customer is surrounded by an ideal space, where even the box of matches is adapted to image of the company. 5(***)And when we see it, we have to start to think. Whether to such unusual space ever anybody like teacher, cleaner or salesman allow himself to rush into that kind of space? And if yes, would not be this a big mistake, something what looks like a coup, something that moves the busily built order and hierarchy?
In Polish quarterly design magazine '2+3D' we can read an article about international design fair in Poznan6 (****). On the one hand we may say that this event gathers a lot of great designers from all of the world and also big engaged audience. On the other hand,as the author of this article notices, on this event everything what we can see is 'great'. But in that 'great' word we can detect the irony. Not quite the artistic education in the country is based on a very low level; in addition persons who design things aren't presenting the better level at all. The author points to the situation, in which departments of individual companies presenting with pride the entire arsenal of lighting accessories and different type of furniture, and they present themselves, as if they were a part of some of artistic arrangement. Authors are surpassing themselves and they believe that what they are doing is standing at the highest design level. Sometimes you just have to say that you're a designer and then people believe that you are making something extraordinary, unusual, even if your work isn't good. But how can we expect from other people awareness when designers do not know anything about their work? Unfortunately myth of the artist appointed as the divine hand is still alive in our culture and it is very possible that it will take a lot of time to change thinking about this. In some cases also artists believe that their work is unique, special, and remarkable. Therefore, very often they forget about aims connected with this work, what are his responsibilities and what the results should look like. Of course no one is perfect. You cannot be always on the top. That is why the role of curators and critics of art is to be honest and focused, and watchful. Tomasz Andrzej Rudkiewicz is the one of the well-known polish designers whose work we can see on the international arena. He worked for Nokia company, designed very interesting modern city transit.,everyday articles, trains and buses or even cash registers. He is becoming a part of the model of ideal designer, who exactly knows what are his aims, and he gets them to the highest design level. This is the person who does not have to pretend that he is the God's anointed . In his opinion the best way to reach people is the mass production. His work is at the same level as Coca- Cola bottle or very famous Italian Vespa- it is the same group of products. Unfortunately those kinds of products are still rare on design fair, where predominate more ideological than useful projects, too much expensive to introduce to mass production. It does not mean that they are not good. Some of them are really great, but they balance between conceptual art and pure design. An example of that kind of product is a module wall which was made by couple of young polish designers- Marta and Lech Rowiński.7 (*****)
When you want to be a designer you have to fight with question why, what for and for whom? Sometimes designs come into being as a result of compromises between designer and the client. It is sometimes continuous argue what is more important: idea or usefulness. The author of of a book titled 'What is the graphic design for?' Alice Twemlow quotes words of Michael Bierut who said that “it is interesting how many of us see the choice between satisfying ourselves and satisfying the client.”8 In these words we can see that there are several situations when you as a designer if you are clever you can something what is hard change in yours favour. History of art shows a lot of situations when we can find entire row of works linking these two issues . One of them is graduation work of Michal Hibner, a student of Warsaw Academy of Fine Art.. In Poland year after year there is a competition of the greatest design diplomas and Michal is one of the laureates of this competition. On the exhibition organized by quarterly design magazine '2+3D' he showed the prototype of public toilet. He adapted this toilet to individual needs of children, people on the wheelchairs and for blind. There is very simple instruction how to use it written in English, polish and in Braille alphabet. The toilet is with regulation of height of the toilet bowl and connected with the urban canalization. In addition, we can find a table for changing children's nappy, washbasin, dispenser to soap and air blowing. We could say that this is innovative project, because most Polish investors, local authorities and academic professors are forgetting to think about simple things like toilets in the public space. Hibner's project is very innovative, modern, good constructed and with great purpose and especially useful, as the good project should be like.9(******) Unfortunately we cannot say the same about very famous project of pink deer by Hanna Kukczyńskiej and Luiza Marklowska. 10 (*******)It was made for a competition to decorate the Warsaw underground station. Yes, exactly, it was made just for decoration. In fact project was noticed by Bogna Świątkowska from New Culture Foundationn 'Bęc zmiana', because that it was something out from nowhere . It means that the deers are not useful. We cannot sit on them, they are not moving, interactive, they just shine in the night. We can't hide that it is easy to notice- big pink deer standing on the pavement. Why it is so famous? Because it is something what we don't need and we don't know what to do with it, so let it be. In addition one of the deers is standing in front of Silesian Design Centre in Cieszyn. But it doesn't change the fact that this is a piece of art between kitsch and design. And right now the only attraction is to make a picture while visiting Cieszyn but this work does not include anything more. Regrettably, there is a lot projects like this and not just in Poland. When we see on the exhibition another set of salt cellars we can start doubt if more creative people who are not conformists exist?11 (********)
The truth is that sometimes designers forget about the useful side of their projects. They forget what for they make their work, for whom and what are the rules of design. Although works like pink deer and recycle projects may be fine, they will never come to light. Still, designers create them because of the exhibitions, competitions (where the only prize is money), private collections. You can ask - is it right? If the design is to never be used by simple, ordinary people, can we still say that this is design? Maybe this is some kind of design? Maybe we just need new terminology?
When you talk about Polish design, you have to know the context and then you can compare it to work of designers form other countries. It is natural that we can see the difference, but also we cannot definitely say that this way of making things is the worst. The fact is that design and also designers are treated in Poland very different that in other countries. Maybe because there is still no good definition of art and design and because of that there is still big discussion about this. And in the middle of this discussion are artists and designers who are so confused that they even do not know exactly what to do.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1.Twemlow, Alice. What is graphic design for?Hove: RotoVision, 2006.
2.Artinfo.pl gallery. “Design- the Polish roads”.
3.Budzyn, Tomasz. “International design fair?”
4.No author.
5.
6.2+3D nr30.< http://www.projektydyplomowe.pl/edycje/2007-2008/hibner-michal/>
7.Kowalska, Agnieszka. “The pink deer in Powiśle. ”
8.Antonelli, Paola. Objects of design. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003.
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