Abandoned department stores, empty kiosks, overgrown playgrounds – Christian Thoelke’s paintings depict places that have lost their purpose and linger in a state of suspension between past and future. Shaped by the upheavals of post-reunification East Berlin, the artist condenses memories of a failed utopia in his “modern ruins” while simultaneously reflecting the fragility of our present. His works are quiet, compelling meditations on loss, transformation—and the question of which ruins we are already living in today.