Wolfgang Tillmans’s photography carries a distinct poetic quality, emerging from his ability to capture the ephemeral, the personal, and the political with an unforced intimacy. Working across large-format and smaller photographic prints, sculptural objects, video projections, and publication projects, his images do more than just document; they create spaces of intimacy and connection. Tillmans’s camera elevates ordinary moments and their aftermath—a room after a party, the view out of a plane window, folds of paper—transforming them into visual poetry. His practice is a constant exploration of the technical and artistic capacities of photography, fueled with curiosity and compassionate perspective on the environment around him, and the rapport built with his subjects. His subjects, whether they are people, landscapes, or still lifes, are captured in a way that resists fixed meaning. The images suggest rather than dictate, allowing for ambiguity, interpretation, and emotional resonance. Through his viewpoint, both the immediacy of the now and the subtle undercurrents of modern existence encourage interpersonal proximity, where recognition, sympathy, companionship, and solidarity are possible between individual stories and societal narratives.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION:

Watching a Minute for a Minute (2025), video installation, two-channel, 25′; Inkjet prints on paper and binder clips: Amazon Freight, Iquitos (2013), 138 × 207 cm, Congo Night (a) (2018), 138 × 207 cm. Inkjet prints on paper and binder clips: Rhein (1998), 203 × 138 cm; Mississippi River, Memphis (2016), 138 × 207 cm. All courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York. Commissioned by Fundação Bienal de São Paulo for the 36th Bienal, participation in São Paulo supported by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen