Wolfgang Tillmans explores alternative ways of presenting images. The way he exhibits his photographs is just as important as the subjects portrayed, establishing constellations in which the images influence one another’s meaning. Also known for his contributions to pop culture—such as the cover of Frank Ocean’s Blond—his photographs are inscribed in a universal imaginary of what it means to be young.
For this Bienal, Wolfgang presents a new video installation created especially for this edition. Inside a dark room, two perpendicular walls measuring five meters wide by about four and a half meters high are transformed into vast projection surfaces. The images—shown individually or in combinations of pairs, trios, or overlays—bring together scenes from urban daily life and from nature: mud sticking to a boot, fallen leaves on dry ground, a train suspended over a narrow stream, colorful folders in a cabinet, a tree canopy, a rushing waterfall, a fruit hanging from a branch. Each detail, when placed side by side, following or blending into the next, opens up unexpected connections.
These images are interwoven with an equally diverse soundscape: the blowing of wind and the chirping of crickets mix with engine noises, the distant passage of an airplane, and human snoring. Over these, layers of electronic music and fragments of voices evoking choral singing in English are superimposed. The sound does not accompany the images literally but creates tensions and resonances—for instance, when a distant moon appears on an orange horizon while birdsong merges with electronic beats reminiscent of a live rave; or when the sound shifts direction, introducing surprising contrasts.
The installation thus constructs an architecture of images and sounds in which physical and projected spaces merge. Open and processual, the work calls for attention and presence, encouraging reflection on the ways we produce and share images and sounds in today’s world.
You can also find Wolfgang’s photographs scattered around the Pavilion, often tucked into corners. These images could have been included in the video installation, but here they engage in dialogue with the works surrounding them. Many of them portray rivers, bodies of water, seas, and oceans. Dry rivers cutting through cities, stages for encounters, caresses, celebrations. He reminds us that humanity was shaped through our relationship with water, which enabled the development of civilizations. Water stands as a supporting actor in our shared history.