Chopin’s visiting card

The exposition “Chopin’s visiting card” in The Krasiński Palace in Warsaw is a presentation of the biggest collection in the world of music manuscripts of Frederic Chopin which are in the archive of the Polish National Library. Next to the unusually rarely shown manuscripts (including 73 music pieces) Chopin’s letters will be presented. The showpieces will be accompanied by interactive applications through touchscreens and headsets allowing to explore the sound level of the exhibition.
The leitmotiv of the exhibition are the sources of inspiration, creation process and the variety of forms used by Frederic Chopin. The aim of the exhibition design was to transfer the visitors into other reality – abstract world of the Composer, in which his music and the sound of piano is a guide. Abstract spatial form wondering through the successive rooms of the palace is leading the visitors not only through the exhibition but first of all through the creation process of Frederic Chopin. Initially chaotic, tangled singular ribbons symbolizing improvisation and creation of first ideas of melodies unite and become smoother to create finally a perfect form filling the space of the upper exhibition room. Thin stripes of banded plywood and the laborious process of deforming them can be associated with creating both musical instruments and musical pieces. The background for the spatial form made of the plywood stripes is the dark floor folded to become partitions with printed texts and covers for the showcases in which exhibition pieces are placed. Vast seating in the same color and form of the showcases serve as a place to sink into Chopin’s music.
Working on the design were Marcin Mostafa, Natalia Paszkowska, Iwona Borkowska, Maciej Burdalski and Anna Dobek, all by WWAA.