Mateusz Juras

Photograph by Andrei Șerban

Project description: A staged graduation project built on the structure used to assess it. Emerging from a thesis on graphic design’s role in shaping reality, Mateusz Juras uses the seven competencies from the exam protocol as a framework. Seven conceptual works, connected by the theme of pretending, become props for the Graduating Student. The project questions what it means to graduate, to be evaluated, and to play the role of a designer or artist.

My thesis examines how art, identity, and graphic design act as performative constructs that shape and distort reality. Everything is a performance, and everything is posing as something else.

How can graphic design embody the act of “pretending”? Can the graduation project itself perform as a fiction, a role-playing system where every part plays out the expectations written into it?

Surfaces or contexts create illusions of meaning. Each element of the presentation responds to one of the seven assessment competencies. Together, they form a system: a staged performance that is the Graduation Project.

This project continues my thinking from the thesis, where I described myself as a student performing the role of a “student writing a thesis.” In the same way, this project is me playing the role of a “student graduating.” I’ve always been fascinated by how easily human-made constructs, like graphic design or a nicely wrapped box, can make us believe in a reality that’s superficial. Graduation, in that sense, is a scripted event or even a ritual. It asks for a performance and for proof. Proof of readiness, of coherence, and of professionalism. Rather than resisting that, I wanted to use it as a guide. I’m treating this project as a stage, and every element of it as an actor.