The Spirit of Poland in Rio de Janeiro

The Spirit of Poland exhibition in Rio de Janeiro is officially opened. As a result of collaboration with culture.pl, Polish design is on showcase at the Centro Carioca de Design.

30th of March, was a big day with the opening of The Spirit of Poland exhibition combined with celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Centro Carioca de Design. We were delighted with presence of about 100 guests. Amongst them: representatives from the IRPH Instituto Rio Patrimônio da Humanidade and Prefeirura do Rio de Janeiro, friends from our partner organisations, including Fabio Palma from IED Rio de Janeiro and Rodolfo Capeto from Esdi – Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial, designers, business owners, students, and delegates from the Polish Society in Rio. After the welcome from Paula de Oliveiro Camargo, Director of CCD, and a few words from the Consul General of Poland in Curitiba, Mr Marek Makowski, Weronika Rochacka-Gagliardi from The Spirit of Poland team gave a short presentation on Polish design. The next part was a cocktail party with delicious drinks served with Wyborowa, Polish premium vodka, and our guests received some special treats from cosmetic company and the exhibiton sponsor, tołpa. We received some very positive feedback on the exhibition and the presented products.

Alongside the exhibition, we organized a series of talks, panel discussions and practical workshops, aimed at local design and artistic community, students from local schools, universities, as well as general public and tourists.

On the 31st March, The Spirit of Poland had a chance to visit IED Rio de Janeiro. IED is the International Higher Educational Network in Design, Fashion, Visual Communication and Management of creative industries. It offers undergraduate courses in such places like New York, Barcelona or Milan. We had a privilege to give 2 lectures at their school in Rio de Janeiro. Monika Brauntsch presented the contemporary design of Poland, with the emphasis on the links between the industry and the designers, whereas Dorota Kabała spoke on design for sports, with the interesting examples from her studio’s experience. The actual bulding of the school, located in a former casino, is overwiewing the beach, making it a perfect place to study!

Esdi – Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial, the oldest design school in Brazil. On the 1 of April Dorota Kabala ran a workshop on designing for sports with a focus on security. About 20 partcipants coming from different design backgrounds, as well as engineering, took a challenge of working out how to design sports equipment that is not only fun to use but also safe.

On Monday, 6th of April, Centro Carioca de Design hosted a panel discussion with the main theme: Design in Brazil and in Poland. Similar or completely different challenges? We were delighted to share our thoughts with Brazilian design experts, as well the audience, who joined us that evening.

On Tuesday, 7th April, The Spirit of Poland team returned to our friends at ESDI. This time, Monika Branutsch and Weronika Rochacka-Gagliardi run a 4hs practical workshop on: Designing a business. Working with Business Models. We were delighted with a presence of 24 participants, coming from different design, business and technology backgrounds, both students and professionals. Working with examples of Brazilian brands, as well as showcasing some case studies from Europe, we focused on understanding how those brands build their businesses around values. The workshop concluded with brilliant presentations from 4 groups on business ideas that they developed during the workshop, based on commonly shared values within each group.

Finally, we would like to thank our partners in Brazil, who made it possible for The Spirit of Poland to come to Rio. Especially, we would like to thank:
Paula Olivera de Camargo and the Centro Carioca de Design for hosting us.
Gabriel Patrocinio for making the initial connections and supporting us throughout the project.
Rodolfo Capeto from ESDI for a great support and hosting our workshop activities.
 Fabio Palma from IED Rio for his support and hospitality as well.


Please follow our profile to find out more about our project!

The exhibition is open until 16th of May, so if you are in Rio, please do come along to see it.

The project is realised as part of the worldwide promotion of Polish design run by culture.pl The exhibition partner is the Polish Embassy in Brasilia.

30th of March, was a big day with the opening of The Spirit of Poland exhibition combined with celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Centro Carioca de Design.

Monika Branutsch and Weronika Rochacka-Gagliardi run a 4hs practical workshop on: Designing a business. Working with Business Models. We were delighted with a presence of 24 participants, coming from different design, business and technology backgrounds, both students and professionals.

Dorota Kabala ran a workshop on designing for sports with a focus on security. About 20 partcipants coming from different design backgrounds, as well as engineering, took a challenge of working out how to design sports equipment that is not only fun to use but also safe.

Design in Brazil and in Poland. Similar or completely different challenges? We were delighted to share our thoughts with Brazilian design experts, as well the audience, who joined us that evening.