Wolfgang Tillmans, Nothing could ever prepared us – Everything could ever prepared us
Centre Pompidou, Paris
From June 13th until September 22nd, 2025.
Later this year the Centre Pompidou will be undergoing a major 5-year renovation, but to go out in style, they’ve invited celebrated German artist, Wolfgang Tillmans to create its final exhibition that’ll offer installations, photography and videos. He’s been given carte blanche to take over more than 6,000 sq. m of the museum’s beloved Public Information Library—a first for Centre Pompidou. He’ll explore both the library’s form, including its architecture, layout and flow, as well as its functions, with the transmission of knowledge, accessibility, and resource sharing, all through the Tillmans lens.
Here, the museum itself becomes the canvas, or an emblematic monument, as the site-specific exhibition dedicated to his multi-faceted approach to making. Rooted in the counterculture spirit of the early 1990s—we know him from taking photos of young brits at rave parties—and since, he’s been deconstructing traditional genres such as portraiture, still life, and landscapes.
Wolfgang explains, “People talk about my work like some form of visual private diary, which is not quite right, but some labels stick. I use my experience as a starting point to craft a genuine story that others can relate to. My work seems accessible; others can identify with elements from their own life. Accepting your body, your sexuality: if it is presented in a free, direct way, that’s easy to understand, without any theatricals, it’s that much stronger.“
“It’s interesting that photography is now a key element for communicating with each other on social media. And yet, documenting everyday life, photographing everything, all the time, has never been what drives me.”
“Talking about my life with a focus on myself is of no interest to me. I want to tell a universal tale through my own personal story.” Tillmans’ photographic work also delves into the profound transformation of media and information platforms in our time, and he offers new ways of making, viewing, and significantly, confronting images, whether with each other or across mediums, from video, text and performance.
Tillmans is inspired by music too, particularly over the past 15 years, “I started recording sounds that intrigued me–it was a way of rounding out my art, recording both sound and vision, as it were. Like photography but for sound. I recorded things like the press printing my books.” This has resulted in an album of electro music, entitled, Moon in Earthlight, he continues, “I work in various musical forms, the spoken word, electro with my friend Tim Knapp, and also in group format with various collaborators. This album is perhaps what comes closest to my visual art, in its variations and its various levels of production, from the most rough ‘n’ ready to the most sophisticated.”
For further information centrepompidou.fr.
