By Wladyslaw Pluta
In late October this year, an exhibition of Polish and Hungarian poster design, 1956 Plakáton, was launched at the Polish Institute in Budapest. The new work, by a range of designers from both countries, aimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian rebellion in 1956; the national uprising that demanded an end to oppressive Soviet rule. The communist state was eventually dismantled in 1989 but the events of ’56 remained a turning point in the country’s history.
50 years later, however – amid the celebrations of the ’56 uprising – and there was violence on the streets of Budapest once more, after it emerged that Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany’s had admitted lying to win re-election. Ewa Engler, a young poster designer from Warsaw, told us how it felt to be exhibiting work commemorating the events of ’56, while in the midst of contemporary protest.