Anita Wasik

Lukasz Rayski

Maria Skotnicka

Michal Minor

Piotr Plotkowiak

Piotr Felszynski

Monika Jurkiewicz

Zbigniew Latala

Michal Minor

Cezary Zamojski

Juror's works

Andrzej Dudzinski

Mieczyslaw Gorowski

Rafal Olbinski

Andrzej Pagowski

Roman Kalarus

Stasy Eidrigevicius

Roslaw Szaybo

Comment about the competition by Adam Daniel Rotfeld
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations Organisation, in March 2005 the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a poster competition. It was aimed primarily at young artists, however some eminent Polish printmakers were invited to present their own original designs.

From the very beginning of its existence the United Nations Organisation has been an inspiration for artists: they created work that gave artistic form to the ideas and values that the UN had decided to promote. Marc Chagall's stained glass window honoured the memory of Dag Hammarskjold, Joan Miro designed a poster for the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Daniel Berset, through his sculpture in Nation Square in Geneva, appealed for a complete ban on the use of land mines. It has become the custom of both governments and individual artists to donate works of art to the UN and these form a wonderful collection showing the richness of our cultural heritage. At the UN headquarters in New York there is statue of Artur Rubinstein, Poland's unofficial representative at the founding conference in San Francisco. In addition, during the International Year of the Child we presented the UN with a gift of a stained glass window, being a transposition of a painting by Stanislaw Wyspia.ski.

The patron in our country of the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of the United Nations Organisation is the President of the Republic of Poland, Aleksander Kwazniewski. This is a mark of the recognition that Poland accords to past UN actions and the weight it gives to the current task of shaping the present. In upholding this anniversary we want to reach all spheres of public opinion with the assertion that the role of the United Nations Organisation is undeniable and indispensable in transforming the greatest humanistic values into a peaceful and safe reality, which guarantees that human rights are respected and individual regions and states can develop freely. The UN has the authority and the necessary mechanisms at its disposal to respond to the world's most burning needs. All that has changed is the approach that now needs to be taken to guarantee the two greatest human values: peace between nations and respect of the individual. Poland is proud of its continuing contribution to the activities of the UN and is involved in creating a new conception of the organisation. In 2002 we put forward our ideas for UN reform at the 57th session of the General Assembly, presenting to Secretary- General Kofi Annan our proposal for a New Act of the United Nations at the Dawn of the 21st Century, which favoured conceptual rather than institutional change. We are hopeful that at the United Nations Summit in September of this year decisions will be taken to adapt the UN mandate to the new challenges of the international situation.

I am extremely pleased that such outstanding Polish artists, under the aegis of the state, are participating in this creative project for the sixtieth anniversary of the UN. I would like to thank Andrzej Dudzinski, Stasys Eidrigevicius, Eugeniusz Get Stankiewicz, Mieczyslaw Gorowski, Ryszard Horowitz, Roman Kalarus, Rafal Olbinski, Andrzej Pagowski and Roslaw Szaybo, for agreeing to accept the invitation to take part in such a seemingly modest venture. However, it has become apparent that not only does the idea of the UN still have currency but it also has considerable vitality, since almost fifty art students and mature artists from all over the country submitted their commentaries or interpretations prompted by the one subject: We, the Peoples of the United Nations... 60 Years of International Solidarity. We were not able to give prizes to all the artists but we would like to give then all our sincere thanks.

This is by no means the first time that the success of its poster art has brought Poland's name into the forefront. In the past there have been posters at the service of great ideas and sound political arguments, but also of ideology and enforced propaganda. The older collections reflect this history; through them you can hear the sounds of a world that no longer exists. Art preserves the essence of human life. Although helpless in the face of evil, it reminds us to be tolerant to each other, brings the people of Earth together in solidarity and awakens in them the power that comes from putting shared values into practice. Artists have their fingers on the world's pulse and the poster, as we can see, can skilfully capture the most important subject in a simple form. Technical improvements have not stopped it from informing and motivating. I hope that this competition will serve to renew the original purpose of the poster and combine it with the measure of high art. I wish to thank all the artists for the fruit of their talent, the judges and the chair of the Union of Polish Artists and Designers, Jerzy Biernat, for help with running the competition, minister Jakub Wolski for the idea, the Department of Public Diplomacy for the work of organising and the Department of the United Nations System and Global Issues for their co-operation. I would also like to express my gratitude to the UN information centre in Poland for their part in publishing the post-competition catalogue.

The participation of masters of the Polish poster, both those working at home and those who have worked abroad for years, has added prestige not just to this venture but to the whole of the programme run by the Polish foreign ministry under the joint title "UN Awareness Action." The work that has been produced as a result of our initiative has proved yet again that meaningful ideas, community dreams and aesthetic considerations can all coexist on a poster in ideal harmony. It is easy to see that the message of this competition is not about documenting the past, but about moving into the future with a shared concern for the world community.