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The 2008 Polish Arts Festival in Suffolk has given people from the county the opportunity to examine contemporary art from Poland's artists, and have a new opportunity to learn more about their culture.

The 1118 Miles exhibition is housed in the Town Hall Galleries in Ipswich from 13 September to 1 November 2008 and highlights themes of cross-cultural communication and dialogue, distance and family.

Konrad Schiller and Katarzyna Szydlowska

Art in Poland is ever evolving though reports carried out by organisations like The Central Europe Review have suggested that a lack of substantial interest from the publicÌýmeans that there are very few private collectors of modern art in Poland but artists enjoy the opportunity to exhibit their work across the world.

"Young polish artists aren't afraid of being international," explained Julia Devonshire, Arts Project Officer based at the Town Hall Galleries.

"In Poland artists have the main centres like Krakow, Warsaw and Gdańsk so being based in Europe helps artists to be a little more fluid.

"While we're moving in new directions the socio-economic elements of the art are very intrinsic to the work of Polish artists.

"We'd struggle in the UK to formulate the same kind of backgrounds to our art as Polish artists do.

"In the art community there is a support for Polish artists and for other artists from other places that were once closed off.

Iwona with her 'family'

"Cultural curiosity plays a part."

The exhibition's curators, Katarzyna Szydłowska and Konrad Schiller have identified 1118 miles as the distance between London and Warsaw.

They have looked at this figure as both a literal distance and as a way of representing emotional separation.

Both curators have studied internationally, with Konrad publishing a number of features on Polish art.

Iwona's stencil work

They value any opportunity to showcase work from contemporary Polish artists.

"We're really excited about working on a project with Polish artists anywhere in the UK and particularly in Suffolk," explained Katarzyna.

"It's important for us to show that we aren't just eating your bread but we are doing something interesting."

Iwona ZajÄ…c's art is typical of the evolving street art scene in Poland.

She was born in 1971 in Gdańsk and is a graduate of the city's Art Academy, having worked in the studios of Professor Mieczyslaw Olszewski.

Iwona regularly operates workshops in Poland for young people to develop their skills.

Her work offers a form of performance in which people can see her paint, create new stencils and explain the inspiration for her work, which centres around maintaining a connection with her family in Poland.

"In the past I have worked on political and social stencils and now my focus is changing," explained Iwona.

"Now it's more about family and I can make my murals about them, in my work you can see my mum, my grandmother, me when I was a child and it's like I can take my family around the world.

"I am a little showman.

"People ask me about my work and I love it, my art is really open and it's really important for me and for Poles generally to find new ways of communicating.

"I was in the USA in December and I was part of an exhibition for seven weeks and people came to see me every day and how I worked.

"My project was about 'mum' and people came and spoke to me and wrote me letters about their mum and this is what I love, it's really about emotion."

Find out more about Iwona and the 1118 Miles exhibition by using the links on the right>>