2025

öffentlich zugänglich

Berufsschule für Farbe und Gestaltung Carl-Wery-Str. 41, 81739 München

2K-HS-Lack, IP-Folie, Bierlasur und Gold auf poliertem Edelstahl, Wandbereich 1: 2077 × 745 cm, Wandbereich 2: 583 × 780 cm

Architecture: V-Architekten, Köln

Landscape architecture: Latz + Partner LandschaftsArchitektur Stadtplanung, Kranzberg

Photos: Peter Schinzler

Text: Bernhart Schwenk

“Test Pattern” is the title of two colorful murals located in different areas of the school building: in the atrium above the break hall and on the second floor opposite a staircase. The artwork experiments with color combinations and ‘ornaments’ reminiscent of graphic tools used for aligning or adjusting scales, reference and calibration patterns. “Test Pattern” thus deliberately refers to criteria and techniques that are familiar and typical utensils used in vocational schools for coloration and design purposes. The title could also recall the electronically generated “test pattern” of the early television era, which was used to calibrate color properties and adjust image display. Before the introduction of 24-hour television programming, such a test card was broadcast on public television for a few minutes after “signal off” until the individual broadcaster groups were switched off until being switched back on again in the morning. Until the late 1980s, the nightly test card on the otherwise TV screen marked by static represented a fascinating void of almost meditative quality.

Upon closer inspection of the two murals comprising “Test Pattern”, it becomes apparent that the arrangement of the colored areas defies predictable logic. Some outlines bend unexpectedly, and lines and surfaces warp and distort. It is almost as if the components of a strict set of rules have taken on a life of their own, reuniting in an idiosyncratic manner. “Test Pattern” highlights the fruitful systems errors, exciting disruptions and creative deviations that, paradoxically, are what make standard tables or grids possible in the first place—thus exposing the tense relationship between the tendency toward standardization and lawful logic on the one hand, and the need for experimentation and creative freedom on the other.

Such a comprehensive understanding of design can also be applied to everyday school life. Beyond functionality, efficiency and goal orientation, there are also transitional and intermediate phases, idle periods and breaks that are equally important as the teaching periods, says artist Wawrzyniec Tokarski, the creator of “Test Pattern”. After all, striking a balance between opposing forces, as well as enduring contradictions and conflicts, is essential for creating a strong community that is equipped to develop constructively. School, as “Test Pattern” conveys, is more than just a place where the tools for creative professions are provided. The ability to analyze complex situations, assess differences or initially incompatible ideas as well as develop one’s own values can also significantly contribute to shaping a successful (professional) life.