Berlinotopia
Berlin the Utopian City (2010)Berlin is a unique city developed over the centuries, in juvenile shape. She is an old lady in historical garment. The unusual history of the divided city in East and West Berlin, and the resulting development of its independently shaped districts as well as the reunification in 1989, inherits a unique promise of a new start. This makes Berlin a magnet for young people from all over the world, people who no longer see a future or possibilities for themselves in firm European structures of other cities.
Berlin’s fast transformation abilities also make the city a magnet for creative people from all over the world. It has become a place of ethnic variety and cultural interchange, where authenticity counts and not perfection. The fact that Berlin as an architectural space hasn’t been totally redeveloped after reunification like many other East German cities makes the city particularly attractive and liveable.
The euphoria of the reunion has now long gone, but the desired influx of people and business in Berlin did not manifest itself. 1.5 million people have moved to Berlin since 1995 and just as many have left. Berlins Mayor Klaus Wowereit calls Berlin "Poor, but sexy". In January 2010 - 244,959 people were unemployed that is 14.5 % of the German population.
Berlinotopia is my latest and ongoing photographic work. I started to develop the series last year some 20 years after the reunification. The work was exhibited in Haus der Fotografie Dr. Robert-Gerlich-Museum in Burghausen, Germany as part of the exhibition Gesichter einer Weltstadt (Faces of a metropolis.)