The organizers have started preparations for the oldest, one of the world’s most significant and recognisable artistic events dedicated to the poster – the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw. The 28th event will take place from 24 June to 12 September 2023 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

This year, the International Poster Biennale will host two competitions. The open main competition, open to posters created between 2021 and 2023, and the thematic competition, which focuses on the concept of ‘home’ – encouraging reflection on the role that home plays in people’s lives, in shaping their identity and in culture. 

Presenting the most outstanding posters made by artists from all over the world to the public, the Biennale remains the most important international celebration for much of the global poster community.  

On 6 June 1966, the first event of the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw was inaugurated at the Zachęta – Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions (today, the Zachęta National Gallery of Art). 

In 1994, the event was moved to the Poster Museum at Wilanów, which organised it continuously until 2016. 

In 2018, by decision of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the organisation of subsequent festivals was handed over to the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In this way, the internationally recognised poster festival has returned to its source, the place where the original idea of confronting the world’s achievements in poster design originated.

The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which played an important role in the development of Polish poster art and most of the representatives of the Polish poster school belonged to the milieu of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. 

The originator of the idea of a review of world poster art in the form of a biennial was Eryk Lipiński, associated with the Academy, and the promoter and long-term organiser of the event was Professor Józef Mroszczak. 

Adrian Andrzejewski