About
Issue #8/2019, titled "Puzzle," is a collaborative graphic project by young artists from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts’ Lithography Studio. Using Roman Pisarski’s poem Zagadka as a framework, the artists provide visual commentaries that contrast their 1990s childhoods with the complexities of modern adulthood.
The publication views the nineties through "pink-tinted glasses," evoking a nostalgic world of Hubba Bubba gum, Bravo magazine, Tamagotchis, and Game Boys. For the creators, this era represents an idyllic, neon-colored freedom defined by simplicity.
In contrast, the present is depicted as a difficult reality of "double identities," social media pressures, and the hunt for acceptance. This "misalliance" between past and present suggests that the artists view their childhood as inherently better and more optimistic than the "sadness" of today.
Ultimately, the work asks a deeper question: Is the problem the current decade, or the universal struggle of growing up? The "puzzle" may not be the poem itself, but the challenge of deciphering an adult life filled with loneliness and responsibility. By anchoring "goodness" in the past, the artists highlight a profound resistance to the "designed images" of their current maturity.
Editors: Błażej Ostoja, Lniski Magdalena, Boffito Nastazja Ciupa
Text: Magdalena Boffito, Nastazja Ciupa
Text: Magdalena Boffito, Nastazja Ciupa
Graphic design: Meg Krajewska, Filip Jędrzejewski
Cover design: Meg Krajewska