Merzmensch - Cartography of Dreams

From the series: NeoreAIlism
Paper: Hahnemühle Fine Art Archival Print
Sheet size: 40 × 40 cm with 1 cm white border around the motif.
Year: Edition of 2025
Edition: 3 + 1 AP
Signed, dated and edition numbered by the artist on a separate label.

Merzmensch – Cartography of Dreams

Two people rest against the wall of a world map. Their eyes closed, their bodies still – as if they've fallen out of time. They lean against South America, glide along Asia, but aren't on the move. They've arrived. Or woken up.

In "Cartography of Dreams," Merzmensch doesn't measure a territory, but rather an inner continent. The map in the background suggests orientation, knowledge, and the demarcation of boundaries – but the couple in the foreground defies any geographical classification. Their existence is unlocatable. It is poetic, otherworldly, dreamlike.

How often have we tried to map dreams? To capture them, classify them, catalog them? This image does the opposite: It blurs the boundaries. It shows tenderness without sentimentality. Closeness without language. A world map as a stage for the unspeakable.

Typical of the Neorealism series, this work combines a documentary feel with digital fiction. The work is reminiscent of 1950s fashion photography, ethnographic portraits, or a film still from a film that was never realized.

A picture about dreaming as resistance. About intimacy as topography. And about the quiet happiness of not having to name everything.