Der Kein Buch Lesende

The mural on Johannisstrasse is intended to stimulate discussion and reflection. The boy's gaze is intense, an impression that is reinforced by the strong glasses. He is no longer reading in this world, but has moved far away from it, into a world that is only accessible to the reader. The mural, dominated by yellow and green tones, measures eight meters on the gable wall of optician Heidenreich's shop. It is a semester project by design student Arlett Streich, with whom she took part in her professor Lisa M. Stybor's “Culture Finds City” project. Last year, the professor designed various murals with the students, all of which have one goal: to draw attention to the impending cut in subsidies for the Anhalt Theater in Dessau as well as for libraries, museums, outdoor swimming pools and sports clubs. In April 2010, Stybor asked for support from the Caparol group of companies for this project. She got it promptly - in the form of around 75 liters of Muresko facade paint and in the form of two energetic employees: Beate Ripka from the Caparol Color Design Studio in Ober-Ramstadt and intern Johannes Eulberg traveled to Dessau-Roßlau for several days in May and helped Place for the small group of around eight to ten students and Professor Stybor to bring the picture of the boy with the missing book to the twelve meter high untreated concrete facade. Furthermore, the scaffolding company Kuhn and the painting company Schoenau were won as sponsors for this project. The actual realization of the design went very quickly over two days: the students transferred the break to the house facade. Then it was time to color: Beate Ripka and the responsible Caparol field representative on site, Torsten Walther, had previously obtained the paint from a wholesaler and mixed the different colors on the tinting machine. The Schönau painting company from Dessau provided brushes and buckets and sent one of its employees onto the scaffolding to support them, so that three experts, Ripka and Eulberg, supported the students. “Skilled workers without whom we would probably still be painting right now,” as Stybor said in her speech at the project’s closing ceremony.