Art is an essential element of human existence, a way of expressing impressions and reflections. It affects emotions in many ways. We listen, watch, narrate, read, and dance to experience joy, emotion, gain peace or energy, and also to better express ourselves, our moods,  and experiences. It also provides a space for reflection and inspiration, often connecting people regardless of language or culture. It helps us find a personal connection with reality and existential experiences, allows us to make memories, and provides a sense of community. The Academy of Art and Design is a special place where these bonds are forged.

Here, artists and designers work together, simultaneously creating and sharing their knowledge, experience, and skills with younger generations. At the Wrocław Academy of Art and Design, this has continued for eighty years, constantly and consistently, despite generational changes in faculty and students, work methods and technologies, and spatial transformations. Moreover, what continues to unite the institution is its mission to create artistic phenomena and to serve as an important, active centre of culture and scholarship.

The occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław prompts us to share and demonstrate how our sense of this mission develops and how the creative aspirations of artists and designers associated with the Academy are realised. Therefore, thanks to the hospitality of the National Forum of Music, we present an exhibition entitled Consonances. The work of the academic community is based on the sharing of experiences, mutual influence, and the search for a common language of creative expression. It is in such relationships that ideas transcending the boundaries of individual disciplines are born. Consonances can therefore be understood as a process of building understanding through art, openness to diversity, dialogue, and the coexistence of diverse forms of expression.

The exhibition’s location creates a remarkable context, and the very space of such a prestigious musical institution further enhances the meaning of the title through its associations with harmony, resonance, and the interpenetration of voices. The exhibition symbolically celebrates collaborative work, presenting the Wrocław Academy of Art and Design as an environment where various disciplines, media, and perspectives do not compete with each other, but rather inspire one another. The exhibition creates a harmony of ideas that serves as a metaphor for this dialogue. It exemplifies the essence of academic activity in the field of art and design and benefits from continuing tradition, openness to innovation and experimentation, and the pursuit of originality and uniqueness.
For 80 years, the Academy has remained a meeting place for many visual arts disciplines. Its anniversary, therefore, provides an opportunity to highlight the relationships built between different studios, experiences, and ways of thinking about artistic practice. Paintings, sculptures, designs, and objects will encourage a wealth of reflection and direct the audience’s attention to matters of spirit, emotion, and poetic license.

Beata Mak-Sobota