Temporary exhibition
’The Tip of a Paper Tower of Babel’ – exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Past
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Muzeum Plakatu w WilanowieMuzeum Plakatu w WilanowieThe Tip of a Paper Tower of Babel. International Poster Biennale in Warsaw 1966–2014
Salon Akademii Gallery | Academy of Fine Arts Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmieście 5
13 June - 31 July 2016
Curator: Zdzisław Schubert
The title of the exhibition refers to an article by Jan Lenica, winner of the Gold Medal at the first IPB in 1966, entitled “A Paper Tower of Babel” and published in Projekt magazine in 1978. The author, who was just as skilled with a pen as he was with a brush, shared his thoughts on the meetings of the Jury of the seventh IPB. Posters from around the globe featured at the Biennale exhibitions over the last 50 years can indeed bring associations of Babel to mind, as they talk to people using many languages and various cultural codes in their visual language.
Over half a century the IPB has collected over ten thousand posters, now stored at the Poster Museum at Wilanów, founded in 1968. More than 600 of them received awards and distinctions. We are only able to present a small part of that collection in this exhibition – 101 works by 86 authors and co-authors. Hence the word “tip” in the title. The rest of the paper Tower of Babel will have to remain hidden in the Museum’s stores. The selection of 300 posters by 204 authors and co-authors, presented in the catalogue, extends the historical perspective of the Biennale but is far from exhausting the topic.
The exhibition follows the idea of the main initiator of the International Poster Biennale, Professor Józef Mroszczak, to elevate the poster to the status of art and emphasise its high artistic value.
The designs presented at the exhibition and in the catalogue are not only those posters which were awarded various prizes and distinctions but also those overlooked by the judges and deserve to see the light of day today. The visitor will see posters that were met both with general enthusiasm and with criticism and incomprehension when submitted to the Biennale. Most of them have entered the classic canon of the international poster after1950. Once again we see examples of the “schools of posters” of those times, often debuting at the Warsaw IPB, world’s most prominent names in this field, evolution of different tendencies throughout the years. The exhibition shows the way in which the poster thrives on current trends in contemporary art – always a source of inspiration for it.
Contrary to the opinions of critics announcing the end of the poster, which have accompanied the Biennale from the very beginning, it is still alive and remains an independent form of art with its own language and a continuously enriched variety of formal means. Its functions in the present world may change, but the appeal of this way of expression remains unparalleled for many artists across the world. Just as cinema has done no harm to theatre, television has not killed cinema and the Internet has not threatened television, the poster still emerges unscathed from the confrontation with much more agressive and ruthless but visually primitive new electronic media that surround us.
The role of the Warsaw Biennale should be to choose the most innovative, creative and well thought out designs from the huge global pool of posters, and show them in Warsaw.
Zdzisław Schubert
Curator of the exhibition
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