The television test card (or TESTBILD in German) has been long ingrained into our television watching psyche. Although not regularly used by television stations to hold space at times when no programs are being transmitted anymore, it is today even more widely used for its professional purpose of calibrating, aligning and synchronizing the use of multiple cameras recording a single point at once.

The test card with a difference

The fascination with this symbol has been a focal point if graffiti fine artist WOW123 aka Marcus Genesius, for the last 10 of his 32 artwork creating career. Genesius has painted the symbol in just about every medium he can think of. He has drawn it time and time again with Sketchliners and Acrylic markers. He has painted it both legally and other, with a vast array of Montana GOLD and Montana BLACK cans. And he has even painted it on all scales from canvas to multi-story mural. But never has he been asked to paint it on a bombed, stenciled and visually scarred wall until now. Take a look here and see for yourself how “My art is based on a true story, called graffiti”, came to life.

Born was the mural “My art is based on a true story, called graffiti”. The name itself is actually a quote from Berlin graffiti writer, Tagno aka Daniel Weissbach, of whom Genesius pays tribute to. The mural founds it home on a Bremen building in the North East of Germany. The home town of Genesius was the perfect place for this unique challenge. For the first time, the owner of this building expressed his desire to maintain some of the visual fodder on his building and incorporate it into Genesius’s design. Creating a visual story as such of which WOW was the curator but not the sole creator.

Film by Jonas Ginter and images by Axel Stock