It is not only a poster, it is simply a magazine, it is simply a vinyl record, it is simply a rejection, it is changes, tenacity, durability... – says W P Onak – curator and originator of the exhibition “Plakat ≠ Papier”, which can be seen in the Krakow Palace of Art from 4 September. The exposition is simply a multilayered look at the poster as a visual, cultural and social phenomenon. This is an effort to realize what the poster was, what it became – and what it could be today. The starting point is intuition that the poster is not just a carrier of content, but a way of thinking, looking at reality, breaking it down into characters, rhythms, colors, abbreviations.
Alicia the Fighter: Do you remember the first poster you had your eye on?
In P Onak: I remember. It was Franciszek Starowieyski. Although this was not my first poster, the first was an addition to the magazine “Bravo” and to “Popcorn”. But this 1 stayed with me longer. Oldowiejski presented a "scattered" head, and something came out of it. It was a full psychosis for me. I thought it was terrible, I was afraid... I never thought you'd want something like that in the house. On the another hand, this fascination was accompanied. This connection is besides exciting. It's amazing how in this case fear is accompanied by fascination and feeling of being "cool".
I like to ask about the beginnings, due to the fact that I think it's very crucial how things are tied up. It's what happens next. On the 1 hand, this fear, fear, and, on the another hand, fascination resulting from the breakdown of what you have seen before. What's left of that call present erstwhile you look at the poster?
The power of the medium, which on the 1 hand attracts, on the another hand repelles is fascinating.
I hatred paper – specified cheap, slippery, chalky...
With shine...
I can't stand it. People from our generation combine a poster with inexpensive paper – this is the most common way to start experiences with this form. The 1990s, then the millennium, 2000+ – all covered with paper boom. Leaflets and inexpensive graphics attacked us virtually everywhere.
In an unleavened way "coloring" and "savoring" reality!
That was bad. It was a minute erstwhile everyone could do their own commercial and usage that right. This had absolutely nothing to do with the Polish Poster School. So the poster can push away, on the another hand attract. The frontier is knowledge.
It is fascinating that we both belong to a generation whose first experience with the poster was its pauperization. All those '90s ads you mention... erstwhile did the poster take on any another meaning? I didn't get to the Polish Poster School until college.
It's large to see you so early. The poster came to me differently. I lived in London for the summer, finishing my art school there. So for me, the minute of getting acquainted with utility or museum graphics was connected to the UK, where PSP was not known on specified a scale. So it started with a British poster, closely linked to modern art, fashion and fashion photography. For me, graphic appearance, the kind of paper used, etc., is more crucial than what it is expected to communicate.
What's the connection, and what's your look at the poster from years ago and modern?
The poster is simply a work of art, but above all an invitation to this art or an ending to something in its circulation. So it is either a final component of a given composition, inspiration, an artist's vision... or something that gives this vision, predicts, teaches. Not all discipline is good, I know it...Or else – not all discipline is needed at the moment. But the cognition that is passed on in all line, in all shape, in all kind of paper, is unquestionable.
What did the poster teach you?
Don't judge. I'm amazed it first occurred to me...
How?
You can look, you can see. And there are 2 different issues. What does the poster carry? Where did that come from, that thought? What inspirations preceded her?
So you could say that the poster teaches you to ask questions, or helps you to ask them and find answers?
Yeah. Definitely. It teaches questions, helps you find answers.
Especially if we go into it. We will dig deeper not only from the point of view of the poster, but from the point of view of the full phenomenon, which accompanies the Polish School of Poster and what happened at the time. What we see is not just a poster, it's a magazine, it's a vinyl record, it's a rejection, it's a change, stubbornness, durability...
A number of things you're talking about here. The Polish Poster School is not the only lead that appears in the exhibition "Plakat is not paper".
This is definitely not an exhibition about the Polish School of Poster. Of course, it's a large thought for specified an exhibition to come up and teach us about this phenomenon, but I meant something else. A much broader look, far beyond the PSP acquis, but entering the key that I have been walking for a long time. In fact, from the beginning of my probation process, I've been following the key of my heart. And that heart always tells well – the problem is that sometimes we perceive to it to an insufficient degree. For me, it is simply a priority. I followed the colour behind what she would teach, but what would besides be entertainment, a way to have a good time. I will be very pleased if the audience appreciates this aspect – it is an exhibition to be “pop”.
Very interesting that you besides invited artificial intelligence to cooperate. What task did you put before her?
When you tell individual that a given visual ad or advertising to a fashion magazine has created artificial intelligence, he is certain to say – this is not art. Doesn't that remind you of the beginnings of the poster's career erstwhile it was assumed that he couldn't claim to be this rank? The poster earned his credit. I'm fascinated by the moments erstwhile art redefines itself, erstwhile you don't know precisely where it is... I pay tribute to crucial moments in poster past by referring to the collection of the Polish Society of Friends of Fine Arts. There are works that supply a direct consequence to the image that was created in the 1940s and 1950s by PSP creators. Artificial intelligence created a poster for the poster. That's the occupation I gave her. She got the same text I'd send to the graphic designer in a akin situation. Is that art? The influence of fresh technology is discussed as part of the communicative that we know from many breakthrough moments for art history. The definition framework was never tight, historically recorded and updated. That's why I gave the chance to make a poster for this exhibition of artificial intelligence. Let this give us space to measure and reflect.
The exhibition is interdisciplinary.
Yeah. I want the show to be interesting, to tell. The poster works with music, with film, with theatre, with museum art. It is interesting that in itself it is simply a part of museum art and at the same time promotes it. It was rather natural for me to combine these aspects. The fact that the exhibition should have sound, its voice not only in the painting, but reflect in another senses. That's why moving images are so important. On the 1 hand it brings the distraction element, but besides gives a minute to turn distant from the static and be able to return to it for longer.
Is there anything that connects these threads?
My thoughts about freedom. I inactive have Andy Warhol's words in the back of my head that being free is harder than being repressed. This is the way I chose. It's not that I go out advanced and I say let's be free. I don't know what freedom is. I keep looking for her. I look for her inside me, I look for her in the play, in different answers. Freedom is not one-threaded. All the more reason to integrate it and discover it in different visual stages. It just comes out of me and it's very deep... This coincides with my experience of working on this project. I invited Joanna Hawrot to cooperate – it was amazing that I got it from her moodboard almost coincides with the 4 years I prepared myself. 1 minute, without asking anything, you know everything. I felt that that was the right direction. There are people who are quiet inside who see only the image and it's beautiful. As the curator of the exhibition, I request different insights, different directions – then with even greater strength I can focus on the points where they cross.
What's your biggest challenge right now? due to the fact that with this freedom, you've connected the word difficulty right away.
My attention is all over the definition of freedom. Regardless of where we look at it – whether from the point of view of the group of people where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we live, where we are, where we have politics, where we live. The question of what this freedom is keeps coming back. 1 day freedom is that we can go to elections, picket – freely express our support or opposition. The next day, the deficiency of freedom makes individual put us in jail for reasoning like this, not another way. The position changes everything... The poster gives it back in a unique way.
Exhibition: “Plakat ≠ Paper”
Palace of Art, Szczepański Square 4, Kraków
04 September 2025 – 31 September 2025
Curator: W P Onak
Wojtek Piotr Onak – curator, creative director, task creator on the border of art, fashion, exhibition and visual communication. Founder of OCR Creations – the author's art-creative studio, operating at the intersection of art and commerce, designing exhibitions, cultural strategies and visual experiences for institutions and brands. Associated with the Pop Culture Art Gallery in Stary Browar in Poznań, where he created the author's curatorial concept and implemented a number of exhibitions and performance projects with a strong visual and emotional dimension. He besides collaborates with the Royal Castle in Wawel as the curator of the “Wawel is yours”.
By education, the visual artist and designer – graduated from Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion, had previously studied Automation and Robotics at AGH in Krakow. In London, he collaborated with ShowStudio Nick Knight, worked on video material in the Plato’s Atlantis show Alexandra McQueen in Paris (2009), presented his works at the London Fashion Week, NYC Fashion Week, as well as at the Swarovski Museum in Wattens and Novas Gallery in London. In 2010, he graduated from Saint Martins with the author's art and fashion installation, and his POLYGON collection was considered the best collection of the Polish period by Fashion magazine. He was among the “Avant-Garde Europe” according to Mercedes-Benz and Vice magazine. He served as artistic manager of the Art & Fashion Forum by Grażyna Kulczyk, the marketing manager of the MOHITO (LPP) brand and creative manager of the KAZAR and Kazar Studio brand.
