Porteño Alphabet
In every letter a port story
We invite you to get to know Valparaiso through its letters. Each one of them has a double meaning: it tells a story about the port, their businesses, galleries or markets, and also, it’s part of the visual culture of this original city.
You will discover from A to Z, the port’s complete alphabet, playfully created, with the signs of the places that every porteñ@ knows, such as the famous Roma bar, icon of university students hang outs, right in front of University of Playa Ancha, the eyewear shop Koch where you can find a 70s’ or 80’s treasure, or the beloved Guria, with Valpo’s best bread; the pan batido.
These signs also show Valparaiso’s inexhaustible typographic originality, which changes at every corner and it’s based on the vernacular, unlike modernized cities populated by chain businesses and strip centres. At the port each person makes their own sign and each sign is different from the other.
This record is born from TypoValpo’s Instagram account, created to collect the city's typographies and share them on Instagram. Shortly after its creation, the account became a digital space with a life of its own, showing the community's interest in the subject.
Followers rapidly became contributors, sharing to the account the typographies they spotted on their daily commutes. Besides, conversations began to take place in the comment section about certain places, businesses and the walls of the city.
This spontaneous participation of the digital community evidenced the living heritage that are the typographies of a city, evoking personal and collective stories and daily experiences of the inhabitants who interact with these signs from both the visual and literal meaning of the place they advertise.
Through this exhibition, we invite you to value these signs, local shops and its offers, thus recognizing their value and how extraordinary life is in Valparaiso. Start with any letter you prefer and explore this unique city.
Also, be part of the TypoValpo community by sharing your favourite urban typographies; by doing this we make everybody’s daily journey an extraordinary experience.
Itinerancia I
El Farol Gallery. Blanco 1113. Valparaíso
08-07 to 30-07. 2021
Itinerancia II
Front of Baburizza Palace (Museum of Fine Arts). Paseo Yugoslavo. Valparaíso
02-08 to 23-08. 2021
