The joy of the teams at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) during the presentation of the exhibition to the press was palpable. Sophie Hackettwho curates for the AGO and participated in the installation with the photographer lived an exciting and moving experience
. She was impressed by his thought, perspective and generosity
.
Wolfgang Tillmans is one of those artists who have marked the history of photography. Over the course of his 35-year career, he has built a dense and complex work on multiple subjects: his friends, nightclubs, social movements, people who love each other and others who go to war, the stars and nature.
Within the framework of the exhibition, the works are grouped by thematic sections. He is one of those artists who, through his gaze, pushes us to see the world differently.
underline Sophie Hackett.
At the origins of an aesthetic
Certain works, which today could be considered the norm in art – such as the men kissing – must be placed in the perspective of their time to understand the exploration of the margins that irrigates the work of Tillmans : he is the one who is at the origin of these aesthetics.
As if to show the importance of his obsessions, we can see at the end of the visit his famous Book for Architect. These are several hundred architectural photos taken at all times and on all continents.
Varied, his work is also varied in formats: small or large, black and white or in color, figuration and abstraction. The common point between the myriad of pieces hanging on the walls, most of them unframed, is that they are never retouched.
2009 with digital cameras like film, because I don’t change a single pixel”,”text”:”I even consider photos taken since 2009 with digital cameras like film, because I don’t change a single pixel” “>I even consider photos taken since 2009 with digital cameras as film, because I do not change a single pixel
says the photographer.
The career of the artist, who lives between London and Berlin, began in the 1990s. In 2000, he was the first photographer to win the prestigious prize Turner. His choices are artistic, but he himself also defines himself as a journalist, a witness of his time.
He is in a perpetual search for truth as evidenced by the installation Truth Study Center which brings together his obsessions of the moment, largely centered on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Elsewhere on the walls, celebrities like Liv Tyler, Bono (U2) or the group St Etienne rub shoulders with anonymous people. We are witnessing a veritable tour of the globe in images, which is not without reminding us of the taste for Tillmans for a world without borders.
Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans presents his work in Toronto.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Hadrien Volle
A dense exhibition
An explanatory guide helps the visitor. This one is particularly welcome as the encyclopedic approach of the exhibition can give the impression of an overflow: the retrospective has the air of a teenager’s bedroom where all the fields of interest are grouped together in the same universe. visual.
I consider each wall of the exhibition as a work of art in itself
, underlines the photographer and when you take the time to visit it, let yourself be guided, the experience is rich. We must not try to see everything, understand everything, but rather let ourselves be seized by what attracts us and invariably ends up changing us.
