board - Polska Izba Przemysłu Targowego

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POLISH EXHIBITION MARKET IN 2007
POLISH SCHOOL OF EXHIBITION STAND DESIGN
Polish exhibition stand design has grand traditions because it stems from the best art schools. When Poland
regained her independence, in the first half of the 20th century, the architecture of Polish exhibition pavilions,
artistic arrangement of expositions, and the form of organization of exhibition space attracted general attention
during trade fairs and exhibitions worldwide. The examples here are Polish pavilions: in Venice (still exists) and
in New York at the World’s Fair in 1939.
The turning point in the history of
exhibition stand design was General
National Exhibition in 1929 in Poznan,
whose architecture and space design
were at the highest artistic level, and
they gave rise to the Polish art of exhibition
stand design, which, until the
end of the 20th century, was considered
one of the best in the world. The
arrangement of Arts Pavilion at this
Exhibition was so modern and avantgarde,
that it was a work of art in itself.
PROF. JERZY SOŁTAN – THE FATHER OF
POLISH EXHIBITION STAND DESIGN
The father of Polish exhibition stand
design was Prof. Jerzy Sołtan, who
stayed in Paris between 1945 and 1949,
where he worked with famous Le Corbusier,
the greatest architect of the previous
century. Jerzy Sołtan was, among
others, the author of the Tropic pavilion
at the Fair in Damascus in 1955, and
the Polish pavilion at EXPO in Brussels
in 1958. The second project, however,
was not realized.
The student of Prof. Sołtan was Tadeusz
Piątek, one of the greatest Polish
trade fair designers who, together with
Prof. Zdzisław Łosiński, had the strongest
infl uence on the architectural shape
of Polish expositions at Poznan International
Fair until the end of the 20th
century.
Thanks to Poznan Fair, the Polish
school of exhibition stand design had a
chance of fulfi llment and development.
In 1966, at PIF, the idea of awarding gold
medals to the best expositions was established,
and the criteria used at that
time are still taken into consideration
when arranging exhibition space. According
to the terms and conditions of
that competition, the evaluated aspect
in the competition was the scenario of
the stand, whose “concept was clearly
and accurately defi ned and unambiguously
presented”. The composition of
space and the graphic concept had to
be characterized by the “maximum effect
with the economical use of measures
of artistic infl uence (...) and the
arrangement of exhibits must be based
on the knowledge of exhibited items
and careful realization”.
NATIONAL PAVILIONS
The essence of trade fairs of that time
were national pavilions and Polish expositions
were sector- and industry-oriented,
and focused only on one theme,
A sign of the times is that, today, the most important
criterion are the marketing aspects of the stand and
awards go to innovative architectural solutions in exhibitions
stand design and a modern design concept
which refl ects trade fair marketing in the best way.
such as machinery, heavy industry, automotive
industry, chemicals, textiles, etc.
So the designing process of that period
was based mostly on arranging vast
spaces, all of which had several thousand
square meters. For example, the
exposition of the Polish automotive industry,
designed by Tadeusz Piątek, had
5 thousand sq. m. “And this was what I
call real architecture” - stressed the designer.
“Now the design of expositions
has been atomized into a set of small
stands. Arranging vast spaces did not
trouble the designers as much as discovering
the right formula for managing
space in such a big venue. People enter
a huge pavilion and they must get the
clear picture, only later their eyes stop on
individual sectors. So it was all about the
proper choice of the concept of spatial
harmony. (…) At that time, we followed
the superior idea of spatial organization
which could refl ect the power of the
exposition. Presenting trade fairs and
exhibitions in Poland and abroad gave
us the possibility to become known in
the world of contemporary architecture”
– says Tadeusz Piątek in the interview
for the fi rst issue of “Wystawiennictwo”
(Exhibition Stand Design).
A similar defi nition of the principle
of Polish exhibitions was provided by
Prof. Łosiński, the co-founder of Polish
school of exhibition stand design, the
former Dean of the Faculty of Architecture
and Design at the Academy of Fine
Arts in Poznan, a great designer, member
of many jury panels which evaluated
stands at Poznan International Fair,
and a member of the jury of the “Stand
of the Year” competition by the Polish
Trade Fair Corporation.
Łosiński’s achievements are enormous.
For almost twenty years he designed
the outstanding pavilion of the
world, at that time, industrial leader “H.
Cegielski”; he designed the excellent art
fair “Interart”; educated many marked
trade fair designers as well as famous artists,
sculptors and painters. For Łosinski,
the most important medium in design
was light, which has a great power of
creation and “builds” the stand, thanks
to which the presented machines and
equipment become exhibits.
The history of Polish exhibitions
stand design also has many other fa-