Backflip

On a 200 square meter wall on the house at Paulstrasse 18, a snowboarder performs a daring headfirst jump, a laid-out backflip, in front of an impressive winter mountain backdrop. The artistic performance is captured at the exact moment the board is above the snowboarder. It makes your stomach tingle.

Only at second glance do you discover a painted wooden sign indicating the location of the daring jump: "Ski-Juwel Alpbachtal Wildschönau". Underneath you can read the lettering for Tyrol that is familiar from advertising. A scene from the Kitzbühel Alps in Moabit? To clarify how this fits together, you have to research the holiday region. Michael Mairhofer, Marketing Manager of the Alpbachtal Seenland Tourist Association, has the answer.

The head of the Wildschönau mountain railways, Arndt Krogmann, came up with the idea together with the building owner. Krogmann comes from North Friesland, but came to Berlin in his early twenties and is very attached to the city, says marketing manager Mairhofer.

The 200 square meter picture was created around four years ago. It was realized by the Graco agency in Pankow, which has been a major player in facade painting for two decades. "We developed the motif together with the clients. There were a variety of approaches to the painting," says Erik Mahnkopf of Graco Berlin. In the end, the decision was made to go with the design by his colleague, the street artist Steffen Kuschkow, says Mahnkopf.

"It took us two weeks to paint the picture. There were usually three painters on site," says Erik Mahnkopf about the work at the time. The picture was painted completely freehand, using a classic brush and roller with acrylic paint. A stencil was only used for the sign with the "Ski Juwel" information