Exactly one year after taking over the Centre Pompidou, Wolfgang Tillmans is staging a triumphant return to the French capital. Running from September 5 to October 10, the legendary photographer is taking over Galerie Chantal Crousel with Glade / Clairière—a brand-new showcase that dismantles how we process perception, beauty, and truth.
For four decades, the Turner Prize-winning artist has been the undisputed master of capturing the fleeting moment.From documenting the euphoric, sweat-slicked depths of ’90s rave culture to framing mundane still lifes, Tillmans treats every subject with the same radical visual equality—whether it’s a piece of fruit on a windowsill or a queer icon in motion.
His latest Paris offering dives headfirst into the power of the line, exploring the fine boundary between deliberate artistic control and sheer, chaotic chance. In true Tillmans fashion, the show rejects rigid boundaries, blending abstract photography, kinetic water droplets, and even industrial heavy-duty towing rope slumped directly across the gallery floor.
The exhibition also features 40 years of full-circle history: Tillmans revisits Lacanau, the site of a pivotal 1986 self-portrait, while debuting Paysages à Grande Vitesse—a series of blurring, dreamlike landscapes shot from high-speed trains around the globe.
In an era flooded with hyper-curated, AI-generated noise, Tillmans forces us to slow down, lean in, and question the reality we actively construct every single day.
