PHOTO:Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans presents a solo exhibition at Kunstverein in Hamburg featuring a new work that consistently developed from his art of the past 30 years, transfers the various aspects of his work and thought to a spatial whole, which for the first time is not predominantly supported by photography. The artist uses the format of the Kunstverein to reflect upon his status quo and that of society in a personal, but not autobiographical manner.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: : Kunstverein in Hamburg Archive
The title of the exhibition is taken from the work “There were 30 years between 1943 and 1973. 30 years from 1973 was the year 2003” (2004). The first two years can be seen on the stamps that are used as the motif of the invitation card and refer to two eras of German history: The German Reich and the old Federal Republic. For someone who was born in West Germany in 1968, these are milestones that accompanied and also defined one’s coming of age. They are dates that say a lot about present-day Germany, about where we stand today and for what reasons. Tillmans has created an expansive installation for the Kunstverein that takes the special character of the old market hall as well as its urban context as a point of departure to newly articulate his sociopolitical engagement. Wolfgang Tillmans produced a 4-channel sound piece specifically for the Kunstverein, which is based on his observation that “When I stand in the large hall, I always distinctly hear the outside world, the streets and train tracks, precisely for the reason that I can’t see them due to the high windows, but only hear them”. The qualities of his photography are transferred to the media of sound and video, combined with the tables “Truth Study Centre (Time / Mirrored)” that are a continuation of the idea behind the exhibition title, the reflection of historical intervals, in individual sentences printed on paper. The presence of a smaller number of large-format photographs that haven’t been presented to date signal that the artist is not turning away from photography. Instead, the thought processes de-scribed above are also taken up in the questioning of his traditional medium. The individual components are not new, but the precisely choreographed spatial composition points to a different focus, in which both the past and present become the starting point of a social and political debate.
Info: Kunstverein in Hamburg, Klosterwall 23, Hamburg, Duration: 23/9-12/11/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-18:00, http://kunstverein.de
