INDIFFERENCE IS FORBIDDEN! WARSAW AND OTHER TOPICS Exhibition from the AMS Gallery Collection

The main goal of the exhibition is to present the achievements of Polish contemporary poster design which, despite many artistic and stylistic transformations it underwent in the last 25 years, is an essential part of the international cultural heritage.

The subject area of the exhibition connects today’s ‘young’ artistic dimension of presented works with the attempt to discuss current crucial, but also trivial problems we face every day. Regardless of their importance we should not, we are not allowed to stay indifferent, since they create our reality and it depends on us how friendly and safe it will be. Organizing poster campaigns can be helpful in shaping our surroundings and our sensitivity to them.

The set of posters, chosen from the works sent to the successive editions of poster competitions organized by AMS Gallery, shows not only the changes in the way topic is visualized, but it is also a reflection of important social message, regardless of its scope, whether it is local, Warsaw, or wider: national or maybe even international.

Maria Kurpik

AMS Poster Gallery was founded in 2004. It is probably the biggest contest for young graphic artists in Poland. It’s a non-profit project whose aim is to arouse social interest in outdoor advertising , promoting well-designed posters and bringing the advertising and academic communities closer. Another words, our aim is to show that advertising can be art, too. Art which sells.
The core of the project are open contests for posters on social and cultural topics. They are not only for students of artistic universities but also for recognized graphic artists and designers. In 2015 the winner of the Shakespeare competition was Lex Drewinski. The curator of the Gallery, professor Janusz Gorski commented on it:
“In this edition of the competition all the jury members were unanimous in their decision about the winning poster which was extraordinary. We were even more surprised to learn that the winning poster was designed by the most outstanding from the living Polish graphic artists, Lex Drewinski, who used to live and work in Germany and now also gives lectures at the Szczecin Art Academy.”
Every year there are a few hundred of works taking part in the competition, the works are shown in nationwide campaigns, on the AMS citylights and on the bus stops. Chosen participants worked as interns in big advertising companies, some of them were offered a job later.
The transparency of the competition is ensured by an external audit company, KPMG. All the works are signed with an emblem and sent to the audit company. In the jury there are representatives of academic, advertising and designing communities. This year we are holding the 18th edition of the competition and the motto is “The Republic of Poland = the republic of all people” . The activities, the competition procedures, the financial reward for the winner and the outdoor campaign are all financed from the AMS own resources.