Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

artists: Wojciech Zamecznik
curators: Karolina Puchała-Rojek, Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska
collaboration on the part of Zachęta: Magdalena Komornicka, Jacek Świdziński
exhibition design: Jan Strumiłło
collaboration: Julia Jankowska

Wojciech Zamecznik (1923–1967) — one of the most important representatives of the Polish Poster School is a multi-dimensional but still little known figure. Currently in the process of being rediscovered as a photographer, he was active through the two decades following the Second World War as an artist in a wide number of fields. He has bequeathed us with an unusually rich archive, full of projects not only of posters and exhibition designs, but also of set designs, film titles, graphic layouts for books and magazines, covers of records and calendars, designs for stalls at international industrial fairs, furniture and theatre costumes, as well as film recordings and thousands of photographs.

The complex archivisation of this legacy, undertaken in 2012 by the Archaeology of Photography Foundation, enables an ever fuller vision of this unusual oeuvre. Making adept use of the language of the avant-garde, Zamecznik had the ability to translate his experiments into the applied arts which were his domain, while at the same time preserving an exceptional creativity, above all in the realm of photography. The exhibition, which will be the first such extensive monographic presentation devoted to Wojciech Zamecznik for 30 years, concentrates on the intersections between his passion for photography and his graphic projects. The exhibition is composed of over 300 objects: models of graphic projects, photographs, prints and documents, as well as two films: the animated film Italia ’61 directed by Wojciech Zamecznik and Jan Lenica, and House on its Head directed by Adam Palenta, edited from tapes of family life recorded by the artist. Situating observation of the world and an interest in the possibilities of photography at its centre, the exhibition presents graphic projects and film realisations, gives an insight into the archive and illuminates such realms as the secrets of graphic workshops on the threshold of the 50s and 60s. The documentation contained in the catalogue, in particular the calendar and the texts, give an indication of the daily life of a designer in the People’s Republic of Poland. They demonstrate both the unbelievable ingenuity, independence and innovation of Zamecznik, as well as his connections with such progressive artists as Oskar Hansen, Henryk Tomaszewski and Jan Lenica.