In his Berlin solo exhibition the Düsseldorf artist, Thomas Neumann, is presenting two series of works, which investigate projections for the future from different eras.

" PICTURES FROM UTOPIA“ is a visual analysis of Eisenhüttenstadt, the "socialist city of the Eisenhütten Combinat East." Built as “Neue Stalinstadt” in the 1950s in the area east of the Oder-Spree, the city we renamed Eisenhüttenstadt in 1961. It was “the” GDR utopia that gained attention in the West through the notion upon which it was built: influencing the formation of society through architectural design. Using existing documentary images from a range of historical publications, Neumann digitally reworks this material. Images are repeatedly restructured. Neumann creates blurs and separates and shifts different color layers; he enlarges various segments of the images and changes perspectives. Reprinted with inkjet on paper, the works initially give the impression of misprints. However, whoever takes a closer look will discover the nature of the original historical image.
Thomas Neumann is also showing works from his DISTORTIONS series for the first time, which are also digital prints, but on plastic tarps. Although DISTORTIONS creates various realms of images with fantastical structures and landscapes, the pictures are simply photographs of signs at construction sites in Shanghai from Spring 2005.
The captured image is cropped, distorted, and set apart from the real world. Nothing indicates that we find ourselves in China's boomtown; no construction site fence points out that the future has already arrived. These designs of the new could just as well be the backdrops and stage sets of a science fiction theatre. The question remains whether these images of the future can truly fulfill the dreams of tomorrow.

In addition to the exhibited works, the photography/artist's books homo sovieticus (2002) 1984 NEWS FROM UTOPIA (2003) and KLEINE REVOLTE - ein Handbuch (2004) will also on view in the gallery.