Axiology of the “Wild Typography” (about the Specific Type of Łódź Street Art)

Abstract

The subject of the article is a new phenomenon of urban art known as “wild typography” (in Polish an abbreviated form “dzikie typo”). It has a specific local,
Łódź character, but at the same time it allows to capture the complex issues of the post-industrial experience of the city. And in that sense, it is universal. The term is puzzling because it seems self-contradictory. Although the notion of wildness has its tradition in contemporary art theory, it does not fit the issue of typography. The very manifestations of “wild typography” in the city space are entangled in several dependencies that undermine the status of authorship, exposing artists to imitation and instrumental use of their works. When it comes to the physical space of the city and its values of wildness and authenticity, the “wild typography” lends it ambiguity and takes over its ambiguity also, which, together with the interfering nature and neglect, makes the resident doesn’t know what he’s dealing with. It is interesting why and with what intentions or hopes artists get involved in this tangle of art, vandalism, and landscape degradation. Treating these spaces and practices as heterotopias makes it possible to go beyond the schematic evaluation of legal/illegal, aesthetic/anti-aesthetic, cultural/wild.