Gorndorf, Texas

"Gorndorf - Texas" explores Wild West enthusiasts pursuing their own version of the American Dream in the German East. In the dreary, decaying concrete landscapes of the former Eastern Bloc, people embrace roles as Native Americans and Cowboys, adopting a romanticized vision of the American West. This constructed reality of a stylized frontier life is a remnant of the socialist culture of the German Democratic Republic. Since the 1950s, GDR citizens have dreamed of the vastness of the prairie while living in a different kind of reservation. The project touches on escapism, nostalgia, and the longing for the Old West, centering on Gorndorf, the town where I grew up and where my cousin lives as a "modern cowboy".