A new ‘Chylonia’ mural has appeared on the wall of a block of flats at 133 Chylońska Street in Gdynia. On a uniform, raw surface, graphic artist Paweł Ryżko created a minimalist typographic composition, evoking the legendary game of Scrabble, in which letters are not just for writing, but for playing and discovering successive layers of local identity.
The author of the project is Paweł Ryżko, associated with the Twożywo group, and the mural was realised by the Traffic Design association in cooperation with the city of Gdynia, the Gdynia Design Centre and private partners Flugger Farby, LCSB Rusztowania and Irenal. The effect of this collaboration is revealed right next to the busy Dworcowy Square, in a street with heavy pedestrian and car traffic, where the dramatic contrast between the urban hustle and bustle and the sparing form of the mural draws the eyes of casual passers-by.
Inspiration was provided by the variability of Chylonia’s name over the centuries – from 13th-century forms, through 19th-century records, to today’s sound. The individual letters enclosed in a geometric grid take on a new meaning when both old and modern variants of the district’s name are arranged from them. In this way, a simple poster trick becomes a pretext for reflecting on the history and identity of a place whose inhabitants can be proud of the richness of their roots.
The implementation work was led by the team of Serhai Rusak, Ivan Fiaskou and Antoni Bązel, who transferred the digital design onto a large-format wall. The idea for the realisation was first presented during the opening of the exhibition ‘Format B’ at the Traffic Design gallery at 26 Żeromskiego Street, where Ryżko also showed a series of paintings related to his childhood in Warsaw’s Bródno district and a dozen posters dedicated to the urban narratives of Katowice, Lublin and Tychy.
The inspiration for this mural was the changing name of the Chylonia district over the years. The artist took the various variants and encapsulated them in a formula reminiscent of Scrabble – from the individual letters it is possible to arrange the past and present names, which in a simple, poster-like manner highlights one of the elements of the identity of this part of the city. In his work, Paweł Ryżko repeatedly explores themes related to the poetics of cities. His portfolio includes posters related to, among others, Katowice, Lublin or Tychy, and recently also a series of paintings alluding to the sentimental mapping of the district in which he grew up, i.e. Warsaw’s Bródno,” reports Traffic Design.
The ‘Chylonia’ mural is another step towards enlivening Gdynia’s public spaces with urban art aesthetics. Ryżko consistently explores the poetics of cities, combining perfect typography with local stories. In this way, the fresh murals gain not only a decorative but also a social dimension, engaging residents in a conversation about memory and change.
source: Traffic Design
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