x
A A A
Exhibitions

Polish National Identity

26-11-2019
The exhibition Polish Identity presents almost 300 posters and various types of job printing items from the collections of the Poster Museum in Wilanow. These are supplemented by objects from the Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz (10), the Polish Armed Forces Museum in Warsaw (2), the Historical Museum in Bielsko-Biala (1) and the private collections of Piotr Dąbrowski (9) and Waldemar Izdebski from the USA (32).
 
The exhibition’s structure, the arrangement of its exhibits, has been designed according to the following thematic groups in a typological development, thus forming the main axes of narrative. Any deviations from the chronology or grouping of particular works are aimed at pointing up timeless relationships, the migration of some motifs or an updated review of the same.
XI. The Polish landscape – the native scenery
XII. The national emblem, flag, colours, fixtures
XIII. The Polish soldier
XIV. Polonia
XV. Polish brands
XVI. Imponderables
XVII. Pantheon of great Poles
XVIII. Silva rerum
XIX. Imaginarium
XX. Appendix
 
Individual artefacts have been assigned to a specific, overriding category. However, it cannot be excluded that they might just as well have appeared in other configurations, since they make reference to related topics. It seems quite natural that their messages relate just as well to other contexts. Sometimes we can even talk about cross dependencies, important additions, and the interdependence of certain motifs, their repetition, etc. The rule governing the typological presentation of works as adopted here aims to capture what issues (and from what point in time) preoccupied the collective consciousness by selecting appropriate imaging methods. The degree of representativeness of a given image was adopted as the basis and principle of selection, which means that a typical exhibit may be extended to include several, sometimes even a dozen or more similar or related works.