Fangor. Beyond the painting exhibition
When we were invited to cooperate by the Museum’s management, we could not hide our excitement. The exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of Wojciech Fangor’s birth is a design dream, but it also turned out to be quite a challenge for us in many respects, including: a very large number of works, their huge stylistic range, the difficult space of the Abbots’ Palace, and a low budget. , but above all, the greatness of the name of an outstanding artist who has experimented with space many times in his long career.
We had the space of the entire Palace at our disposal, but in order to arrange the works sensibly and looking at their relationships with each other, we had to persuade the curator to significantly reduce their original number. As a result, the exhibition contains over 100 paintings, plus over 90 drawings, posters and sculptures.
After a thorough analysis of the architecture and the exhibited works, we decided to use the potential of the shallow arched niches appearing in numerous rooms of the Abbots’ Palace. Their curves harmonized wonderfully with Fangor’s works. We proposed that niches, previously omitted or covered in exhibitions, be used as a carrier of archival photographs and quotes that will guide the viewer around the exhibition. Their shape was further emphasized by colored lights, giving a wonderful gradient effect, more intense at the edges of the niche and lighter in the middle.
Arcs and colorful gradients became our leitmotif. The free-standing exhibition walls, the entrance wall – a welcome sign, and the showcases were rounded. Also, the title letter chosen to identify the exhibition and quotes – SUD – is a typeface whose letter „O” is based on a circle, while the remaining glyphs have very dynamic differences in width.
We really wanted to create places at the beginning and end of the exhibition that would be a strong accent and that could meet the needs of a modern viewer for a photographic souvenir in the exhibition, in short, it was supposed to be „Instagrammable”. Strong, typographic compositions with additional spatial effects, considering their popularity in social media, met this assumption.
“For a thoughtful and surprising journey through the work of Wojciech Fangor” Onet awarded the prize – O! Shining 2023 in the VISUAL ARTS category
Gazeta Wyborcza Tricity is nominated for the cultural Storm.
Visible Museum Review 2024 👁️🗨️ Category: Identification of temporary exhibitions 2nd place
PRESS>>
https://plndesign.pl/wystawa-fangor-poza-obraz-w-palacu-opatow-w-gdansku/
design: Dorota Terlecka, Krzysztof Wieruszewski
graphics: Anita Wasik
Curator: Wojciech Zmorzyński
Foto: Daria Szczygieł
National Museum in Gdańsk
