The Exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław during Salone del Mobile 2014 in Milan
Organised by
Dorota Koziara Studio in cooperation with Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Milan
On 10-13 April 2014, for the first time in history a Polish state artistic university conducting design and arts studies had its exhibition during Salone del Mobile in Milan. It was the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.
Apart from the Academy, the audience of this largest design event in the world could get acquainted with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, the only museum of this kind in Poland.
The exhibition organised by Dorota Koziara Studio in cooperation with Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Milan was also the first real instance of promoting Wrocław as the European Capital of Culture 2016.
The exhibition took place during a new edition of Salone Internazionale del Mobile, a fair known to be the most important design event in the world. The fair brings together exhibitors from more than 150 countries who have 230 000 m2 of exhibition area at their disposal. The traditional trade-related function of the fair is complemented by a special event called Fuori Salone, which features international presentations of artists, producers, festivals and design contests to be followed in several exhibition halls in Milan.
The multi-media presentation of Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts and its art and design departments showed a wide range of study opportunities in one of the most modern (newly expanded) and biggest universities in Poland.
The Eugeniusz Gepper Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław has well-developed design departments: interior design and industrial design, as well as such unique majors as glass and ceramics and means of transport design. Its graduates often become main designers in big automotive concerns of known brands. The Wrocław Academy is now initiating a programme of great events promoting design in Poland. In cooperation with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, it invited an internationally renowned guru of design, Alessandro Mendini, to present his exhibition in the halls of the Museum and the gallery in the new building of the Academy. The exhibition is going to take place in December 2014, thus starting a series of important events organised as part of the European Capital of Culture 2016 celebrations in Wrocław. The Academy has also decided to award Alessandro Mendini an Honorary Doctorate.
During the week of design in Meilan Arch. Mendini was visited by Wrocław Academy students in his Atelier Mendini.
The presentation of this best-equipped (its new building opened in 2012) and historically established art academy in Poland was meant to encourage foreign students to visit the academy, foreign lecturers to launch academic exchange, and foreign companies to cooperate with the academy through workshop programmes.
The opening of the exhibition was honoured by Consul General Jerzy Adamczyk and Mrs Marta Zagórowska Acerboni, who is responsible for the cultural programme of the Consulate. Deputy Minister of Culture Mrs Monika Smoleń was also a quest at the exhibition.
"Dzisiaj Polska", a logo with a strongman, designed by a known and awarded Polish book illustrator and a teacher at Wrocław Academy, Magdalena Wosik, was chosen to be the main motif of the exhibition. It had earlier been used in a poster for the AMS Poster Gallery Competition.
The event was accompanied by a concert of a known Italian jazz musician Raffaele Kohler (trumpet) and a Lebanese-born vocalist Rita Tekeyan.
