As part of a collaborative project that was designed in spring 2024 by the Sekundarschule Rosental on behalf of Immobilien Basel-Stadt, three colourful tarpaulins have been hanging on the temporary fencing on Schwarzwaldallee, right next to the school, since mid-June. Around 150 pupils from the secondary school took part in the project.

It was jointly decided that ‘SEK ROSENTAL’ would be the large lettering that runs across the three tarpaulins. A vibrant, colourful work of art was planned that was designed to fit together like a mosaic, perhaps only recognisable as lettering from a distance, but comprising of many details when viewed from up close. All of the school’s pupils took part in the project.

In a first step, the three tarpaulins were divided into 147 panels and each was assigned a number. Since the lettering is so large, only areas can be recognised on the individual image sections. These were first drawn onto paper and the transitions to the adjacent images were carefully checked. The panels were primed with acrylic paints and the colours chosen freely. Details were then drawn or painted in the same colour in each panel. The classes tackled the very open task in different ways. Some worked with a theme such as people, perspective or colour contrast. Other classes approached the subject more freely, working with various painting mediums on the primed coloured surfaces.

At the beginning of May, all the images were handed over to the graphic designer for scanning as scheduled and the pieces of the puzzle were put together on the computer to form a large picture. The result is three beautifully colourful tarpaulins with the lettering ‘Sek Rosental’ on them.

A big thank you goes to the teachers at the Sekundarschule Rosental and to the pupils in classes 1a, 1b, 1c, 1i, 1k, 1s, 1t and EG2 for their creative work and great commitment.