For my long-term project "debris", I have been taking photographs
since around 2002 in a rural area of Thuringia, where I grew up.
At the time of my childhood, this place was located directly at the
inner-german border, and therefore in a restricted area that could only
be entered with a pass.
Right at the beginning of my involvement with photography, I asked
myself to what extent this special situation had inscribed itself into
the appearance of the area, or to what extent it was superimposed
on my memory.
Since then, whenever I return there, I photograph landscape, architecture
and people, which has resulted in a diverse archive of analogue black and
white photographs over the last few years, which, despite their
documentary qualities, do not claim to be objective and, when viewed together,
rather describe a place that no longer exists, or perhaps never existed.
The title of the series is often misunderstood as the name of a place,
yet only has its meaning of "rubble" or "remnants".
Of course, this is
a provocative attribution, but the question of the significance of village
structures, also as a place of memory or longing, seems to be a question
of our times, considering that a third of the world's population is expected to
move from rural areas to cities in the course of the 21st century.
A migration movement that targets the inner cities and often ends up
in anonymous suburbs.