WOLFGANG TILLMANS

Central to the downstairs gallery will be a large unframed print of The State We’re In, A, 2015, that documents the open water of the Atlantic Ocean where international time lines and borders intersect. This will be displayed alongside imagery made at the Northern and Southern European Observatories that look beyond our national boundaries. Also on show will be photographs that study the visual effects of the Sun’s light entering our planet’s atmosphere and an image of human blood flowing through plastic tubes, contained outside of the body during surgery.

A new grouping of tables that follow on from his truth study center series (2005 – ongoing) will be installed in the upstairs gallery. I refuse to be your enemy 2, 2016, enacts another use of this display format by presenting various sizes of blank office paper from Europe and North America. Inspired by a workshop he gave to students in Iran last year this work examines the similarities in our nationalized forms of printed communication and how these formats can unite rather than divide us.

Examples of his pro EU poster campaign will be presented on the exterior of the gallery.

Wolfgang Tillmans was born in Remscheid, Germany, 1968 and lives and works in Berlin and London. Since 2006 he has run the non-profit exhibition space Between Bridges that is currently operating in Berlin. In 2015 he received the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography and the Royal Photographic Society Award.

In 2017 Tillmans will have a major survey exhibition at Tate Modern, London and at the Beyeler Foundation, Basel.

He has exhibited extensively across the world and has recently held solo exhibitions at Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2016); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2015); the Beyeler Foundation, Basel (2014); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, Germany, Les Rencontres d’Arles, France and Museo de Arte de Lima (2013); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2012); Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2011); Serpentine Gallery, London and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2010).

His work has been included in significant survey exhibitions including Manifesta 10, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014), Fundamentals, the 14th International Architecture Biennale directed by Rem Koolhaas, Book for Architects, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2014); the Berlin Biennale, Germany (2014, 1998), the British Art Show 5 and 7, UK (2000, 2010); the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Russia (2009); the 51st and 53rd Venice Biennale, Italy (2005, 2009); Turin Triennial, Italy (2008); 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2008) and the 2nd Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art, Kiel, Germany (1999).

Recent solo publications by the artist include Conor Donlon: Wolfgang Tillmans (2016), Walter König; Wolfgang Tillmans: What’s Wrong with Redistribution (2015) and The Cars: Wolfgang Tillmans (2015), both Walter König; Wolfgang Tillmans (2014), Phaidon Press; Neue Welt: Wolfgang Tillmans (2012) Taschen; Wolfgang Tillmans: FESPA Digital / Fruit Logistica (2012) Walter König and Wolfgang Tillmans: Abstract Pictures (2011) Hatje Cantz.