Timeless Islands

Podbielski Contemporary proudly presenting:

Timeless Islands

Thomas Jorion

13th September 2013 – 9th November 2013

Podbielski Contemporary is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Thomas Jorion (*1976) in Berlin. Already the title of the exhibition embodies the concept behind the existing artistic career of Thomas Jorion: Timeless Islands; The search for something transient that exists alongside time. The exhibition will present a selection of photographs from the series Révolution éteinte, which were predominantly documented in abandoned factory buildings and open-pit mines between 2007-2013. The name of the series can be translated to mean Extinct Revolution. This refers to the Industrial Revolution, which in the second half of the 18th century, took its course through continuously new Scientific Achievements. The rapid development of technology and productivity then lead to a permanent change in booming industrial sectors. Old, unusable factories and production plants were simply abandoned. For Thomas Jorion such abandoned places are Timeless Islands. They are a bygone era arrested, whose remains have fallen victim to time. “My work is based on our perception of time, how it passes, but particularly the lack of linearity interests me.“ (Thomas Jorion, 2010) The work Fantasia rosso, 2010, is characterised by the bright rose pink of the interior walls. They show no signs of the former textile factory in Northern Italy, which fell victim to the global outsourcing of production locations. The photograph Hugo, also created in 2010, stands for an entire industry sector, which once distinguished the Region, and has now moved to the main mining countries. The piece depicts the former locker room in a Coal mine in North Rhine-Westphalia. The situation is similar in the work, Meikyu, created in 2008 in Aichi, Japan, which depicts the frozen beauty of a former warehouse in a chalk mine. Thomas Jorion features structuring elements in the centre of his photographs, such as machines, pipes, or beams. It is through these and the clarity of perspective, the viewer is drawn into the artwork. In the work Les Orgues, 2011, he photographed a row of still gleaming metallic exhaust pipes, whose surroundings alone reveal a long abandoned factory. In the work Metropolis from 2008 a section of an old electricity plant turns into a gazing monster. The consequent absence of workers in his photos characterizes however the presence of a previous long forgotten generation. The exhibition is held under the patronage of the French Embassy in Berlin. On the 10th of October 2013 an extensive publication Silencio (edited by La Martinière) of his series of works will be released. Further exhibitions will take place from September 2013 at Gallery Sala 1 for the Fotografia – Festival Internazionale di Roma as well as in October at the Gallery Insula in Paris.