Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu

Laureate of the Jan Lenica Award 2020

This is the first author’s exhibition in Poland by one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed designers, Kenya Hara. Since 1993, he has been associated with the Nippon Design Center, within which he runs his own studio/think-tank, known as the Hara Design Institute. He is the author of numerous international exhibitions, the creative director of MUJI and the author of books combining design with a philosophy of life. Treating design as a universal wisdom accumulated in society, he plans and implements various communication-based projects.

The Jan Lenica Award in the form of an exhibition has been conferred by the National Museum in Poznań since 2002 on outstanding designers from all over the world for their unique contribution to poster art and design. The exhibition presents a selection of the laureate’s posters and other publishing projects carried out from the early 1990s until today, including projects prepared specifically for the Poznań exhibition; Hara’s design of the Poznań show is a work in its own right.

Japanese arrangement

The exhibition presents a selection of the artist’s posters and books. This core of the display includes projects prepared especially for the Poznań show. They are accompanied by other publishing projects, i.e. advertising magazines and periodicals, designed since the beginning of Hara’s professional activity. In almost all of his works, the author attaches great importance to his home country’s cultural tradition, which he skilfully transposes into the modern language of posters and other areas of design. The exhibition includes moreover advertising designs and corporate branding for MUJI, as well as examples of packaging for other Japanese companies. The audience will get to know his show “Neo Prehistoria 100 Verbi” (Neo-Prehistory 100 Verb), held in collaboration with Andrea Branzi at the 21st International Triennale in Milan in 2016. Furthermore, the public will be able to appreciate Hara’s most recent project, “High Resolution Tour”. It is related to tourism seen from an individual perspective, where the author, invoking his personal experience, endeavours to take a broader look at the extensive legacy and future of his own country.

The works on show are accompanied by the author’s commentaries. Of particular significance are Hara’s original design sketches, which offer an insight into the technical aspects of the designer’s work.

Kenya Hara, fot. Takashi Sekiguchi

Biographical note of Kenya Hara

Works on exhibition

The principal sponsor of the National Museum in Poznań

Patronage of the exhibition

Media patrons: