“‘Culture opens up the mind and soul,’ said Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India. His words reflect our aspirations, that we realise through cultural exchange between Poland and India. I hope our new premises will be home to creative encounters between the people of culture from India and Poland,” Anna Tryc-Bromley, Director of the Polish Institute in New Delhi, said at the opening ceremony.
The director emphasised that good cooperation with local partners, including the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, allowed the Institute’s team to deliver on an ambitious plan. The Institute’s activities reached recipients in 33 cities in the four countries the Polish embassy is accredited to—India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The mission also hosted 268 cultural events in South Asia.
The ceremony was attended by Polish Ambassador to India, Tomasz Łukaszuk and Rahul Chhabra, Director of the Central Europe Division of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India. “The décor of the Polish Institute speaks to the change that came about in Poland after 1989. Polish companies are on a par with the world’s best. Polish industrial design is innovative, creative and attractive to foreign partners,” Ambassador Łukaszuk stressed in his address.
The inauguration of the new building, at 67 Jor Bagh Street, also saw the launch of an initiative by the well-known Polish and Indian designers: Tomek and Gosia Rygalik, and Gunjan Gupta. They are working together to develop prototype products that will combine Indian handicraft with Polish industrial design. The project is open to students from Poland and India, and has the support of the Polish Institute.
The night also featured the promotion of International Gallerie, a Mumbai-published magazine, whose issue has been wholly devoted to Polish culture as a result of collaboration between its editor-in-chief, Bina Sarkar, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw and the Polish Institute in New Delhi. The ceremony was accompanied by an outdoor 3D installation, inspired by the Polish Poster School, especially the work of Henryk Tomaszewski and Lech Majewski. The installation has been prepared by the well-known Indian designer Ishan Khosla, together with the architect Vijay Kate and the textile designer Shubhangini Singh.
Source: Press Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Poland
Photo © Krzysztof Augustin