Torre Velasca, Piazza Velasca 3/5, 16th Floor
Visteria Foundation returns to Milan Design Week 2026 with an exhibition that connects historical works and contemporary practices, exploring Polish modernism as a cultural project and a lens on the present.
Following its Milan debut in 2025 with the exhibition Romantic Brutalism, Visteria Foundation presents Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty during Milan Design Week 2026, an exhibition conceived as a multilayered reading of Polish modernism through a dialogue between historical works and contemporary productions.
Curated by Federica Sala and Anna Maga, the project is structured not as a chronological survey but as a thematic narrative aimed at highlighting the continuity and relevance of a design language that, within the Polish context, developed distinctive characteristics while maintaining a strong relationship with the decorative and applied arts.
The exhibition is hosted on the 16th floor of Torre Velasca, an iconic landmark of Milan’s post-war modernity, a setting that reinforces the dialogue between two European cultural and design traditions. The project examines how Poland’s complex history contributed to the emergence of a sui generis modernism in which the pursuit of beauty extended beyond purely aesthetic concerns to become a cultural act and a form of resistance, echoing the perspective introduced by Irena Krzywicka in her 1948 text from which the exhibition takes its title.
Alongside works from the archive of the National Museum in Warsaw, including furniture pieces by Jan Kurzątkowski, Bohdan Lachert and Teresa Kruszewska, the exhibition features projects by contemporary designers and artists whose practices reflect the ongoing legacy of modernist ideas, among them Mati Sipiora, Marek Bimer, Aleksandra Hyz, Monika Patuszyńska and Małgorzata Markiewicz. A selection of designers, including Tomek Rygalik, Maria Jeglińska-Adamczewska, Paweł Olszczyński, Igor Polasiak and Maja Ganszyniec, has also been commissioned to develop new works specifically for the exhibition, contributing to a direct comparison between historical memory and contemporary research.
The exhibition path includes Wzorcownia 2.0, a project by the Institute of Industrial Design (IWP) dedicated to the reinterpretation of iconic Polish designs, presenting experimental prototypes that revisit historical models and typologies without limiting themselves to formal reconstruction. The exhibition design by Zofia Wyganowska Studio forms an integral part of the curatorial narrative, engaging with the architectural space and with the heritage of both Polish and Italian modernism, while the presentation is further enriched by works from key figures of the Polish avant-garde such as Władysław Strzemiński, Edward Krasiński and Katarzyna Kobro, whose presence underscores the relationship between visual arts, design and material culture.
Within the broader framework of Fuorisalone 2026, the exhibition operates as a reflection on the concept of modernity and its historical and contemporary interpretations, questioning the role of design and applied arts in a context marked by overproduction, social transformation and environmental urgencies. Following its Milan presentation, the exhibition will be shown in September 2026 at Visteria Foundation’s headquarters in Warsaw, reinforcing the international dimension of the initiative.
Polish Modernism.
A Struggle for Beauty Presentata da Visteria Foundation
April 20 – 26, 2026
Torre Velasca, Piazza Velasca 3/5, 16th Floor
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