Artists from Poznań decided to showcase their city through a collection of plates in shades of pink.
The plates used to create the collection came from a flea market
© POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA
POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA — an informal art group created by Anna Pol, Marianna Sztyma and Magda Wolna. The artists are friends. They graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. In 2017, they first made a series of a dozen black and white plates with their own graphics together. Since then, they have created more than a dozen such collections. Together they choose colors or motifs, but they work separately on the plates. Most often they use old ceramics found at flea markets.
The collection was created for the Targi Rzeczy Ładnych event
© POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA
HOMETOWN is their latest collection consisting of 40 plates. They created it for the Targi Rzeczy Ładnych event. The ceramics show places from the artists' childhood, youth and student days, creating their personal map of Poznań. It includes the Cegielski Factory, Sołacz, Rataje and the Warta River area. Landscapes from the 80s and 90s are perversely depicted in shades of pink.
The collection consists of 40 plates
© POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA
- The works were inspired by the architecture of the city. Its details, repetitive rhythms of buildings, parks with their vegetation, fowl, Warta landscapes, details of nature. Also urban typography, flickering neon signs, signboards. Night life of student times, smoky cafes. All these collected details are sketches for the collection — describes Anna Pol.
The artists presented their favorite places in Poznań
© POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA
- In search of inspiration, I went for a sentimental walk through the Ratajskie neighborhoods in Poznań, I grew up there. The hill at the playground, with its characteristic metal railings, from which one used to slide down in winter on a sled, turned out to be flatter than I remembered it from my childhood, and the swimming pool at the Piastowskie Estate, the oldest cooperative housing estate in Poznań (it was established in the second half of the 1960s.), is no longer the small building from the 1970s with a slanted roof (the shape was supposed to resemble a sail). Five years ago it was built from scratch. The sports elementary school building has taken on a yellowish-rust color, and the neighboring pavilions are deteriorating. The apartment blocks made of large slabs stand as they have stood, only being refreshed and repainted regularly every few years. A constant element in my works is animals. This time cats sitting in the window and dogs on leashes are symbolically representing my present-day Jeżyce - recalls Magda Wolna.
A constant motif in Magda Wolna's works are animals
© POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA
- Admittedly, I have been living in the countryside in Lower Silesia for 12 years now, but I return to Poznań often and with love. My plates present a bit of stories from my childhood: the view from the window on the Cegielski plant, forbidden walks on the shivering bridge from Dębina to Starołęka, forgotten and rusty Jordan gardens. Nostalgia and simple forms. There is also a plate with the motif of the Peacock sculpture, by Anna Krzymańska from 1962. The sculpture stands in Park Marcinkowskiego, which I used to cross while hurrying to the DKF at the cinema in Palace — says Marianna Sztyma.
The collection is kept in shades of pink
© POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA
Do you love design? Check out other interesting designs!
Compiled by:KATARZYNA SZOSTAK