Since its founding, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute has implemented projects aimed at presentations of Polish design in the international arena. Design serves as a platform for showcasing contemporary Polish culture in order to inspire the international audience and artists with Polish design and to promote Polish creativity and innovativeness. To build and strengthen the reputation of Polish design in the international sphere, the Polska Design Programme continuously works with leading Polish designers and curators and organises exhibitions of Polish design at the sector’s most important international events. Since 2014, the Institute runs the Let’s Exhibit programme, which supports young Polish designers in presenting their work at fairs and festivals around the world.
The Institute has completed a wide range of design projects including the historical exhibition Back to Front at La Triennale in Milan, the award-winning A Matter of Things at the London Design Biennale 2018, MYKOsystem at the XXII Triennale di Milano. Since 2011, the Institute has published a series of books on Polish design, including Out of the Ordinary (2011), Polish Design Uncut (2013), the award-winning VeryGraphic. Polish Designers of the 20th Century (2015) and The ABCs of Polish Design (2017), as well as a multimedia guidebook to the history of Polish design.
Since 2017, the Polska Design Programme has developed projects in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including The ABCs of Polish Design exhibition presented at the leading design festivals in the region, while supporting the presence of Polish design at key international fairs and festivals.
The key to the success of the Polska Design Programme is working with partners, including London Design Festival, Milan Design Week, Vienna Design Week, WantedDesign, London Design Biennale, DesignBlok, Budapest Design Week, Dutch Design Week and La Triennale di Milano.
A new area of focus of the Polska Design Programme is to present Polish fashion abroad. The Institute takes a broad range of initiatives to introduce and support Polish fashion designers internationally, from participation in key events such as the London Fashion Week and Who’s Next in Paris to inspiring individual multidisciplinary collaborative projects.
In addition to graphic design, product design and fashion design, we support architecture events, including publications dedicated to the history of Polish architecture, as well as exhibitions, including “Patchwork. The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska – Hawrylak” at the Center for Architecture in New York.
