Wolfgang Tillmans: What's Wrong with Redistribution?

Tillmans' engagement in the politics of non-normative cultures and sexualities has been evident since his earliest photographic work from around 1990. Since then he has also consistently explored portraiture, of musicians, artists, activists and friends alike, documented the nightlife of Western metropoles, details of bodies and still lifes from everyday surroundings — thus repeatedly seeing the world anew through a reworking of classical genres. Another important strand throughout the exhibition is the conceptual study of materiality, as in the the “Silver, Lighter and Paper Drop” works, which all explore photography itself and the dynamics between chance and control. The exhibition also includes a selection of tables from the series truth study center, where the surface allows montages of research into truths, science and dogma. Finally, the circulation of images is also visualised in the new video “Printing Press Heidelberg Speedmaster XL — Real Time Total Eclipse Nightfall and Exit”, where the mechanical rhythm of the printing press is juxtaposed with the pace and duration of nature's macrocosm. The book “Wolfgang Tillmans: What's wrong with redistribution?” can be regarded as an extension of the exhibition. It is edited and designed by Wolfgang Tillmans, published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König and includes a new commissioned essay by Tom McDonough.