By Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić //
If there is one thing that truly ought to concern us today, it is the way we perceive time and shape reality. Art, like life itself, reflects the complexity of that relationship – and this is precisely at the heart of the new exhibition by German artist Wolfgang Tillmans (1968), now open at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It is the last major exhibition before the iconic building closes to the public for a five-year renovation, and it comes from an artist whose differencia specifica is a persistent fight against indifference, through art, but also through political and social activism.
The Specificity of the Exhibition
From June 13 to September 22, 2025, across a monumental 6,000 m² on the second floor of the former Public Information Library (BPI), Tillmans presents one of his most personal and ambitious exhibitions to date.
At a moment when the Centre Pompidou is preparing for renovation, the institution has granted the artist carte blanche – complete artistic freedom, which Tillmans uses to create an immersive installation titled „Nothing could have prepared us – Everything could have prepared us“ (Rien ne vous y préparait – Tout vous y préparait) as a political, democratic, and intimate gesture.
The exhibition is as personal as it is political – reflecting on the democratization of culture, freedom of information, and the role of art in an era of widespread loss of trust in visual truth.
The very fact that the show is staged in the abandoned space of Paris’s former Public Information Library (BPI) – a symbol of open knowledge and free access to information – carries a political message about the increasing disappearance of public space for dialogue and the exchange of ideas.
The exhibition is conceived without hierarchy – works are taped, pinned, or simply propped against the walls – allowing visitors to choose their own path and mode of engagement, in line with the principles of freedom, openness, and accessibility. Explicitly political elements are also integrated into the works – anti-Brexit posters, photographs addressing migration, rising authoritarianism, borders, and media manipulation.
The exhibition is installed in the emptied spaces of the former Public Information Library (BPI) in a way that allows the iconic architecture of the Centre Pompidou to engage with the artist’s reflections on the presence and history of knowledge production, shaping a distinctly individual and collective experience.
The artist uses the infrastructure of the former library to highlight the analogy between his artistic practice and this unique site of knowledge and social diversity. More than ever before, he intervenes in the space – a hallmark of his exhibitions since the mid-1990s – transforming existing structures and inventing new forms of display.
The exhibition covers nearly 40 years of Tillmans’ work, showcasing a broad spectrum of his artistic practice. It presents an overview of his photographic oeuvre in various ways, with the sequence and arrangement of the works not following a chronological order but rather emerging as a response to the architecture of the space.
Alongside the photographs, Tillmans includes video works, music and sound, as well as his extensive collection of printed materials (books, records) and personal objects.
The Library as a Space of Exchange and Contemplation
At the heart of the exhibition is the library—not as an archive of the past, but as a space for exchange and contemplation. Books, fanzines, catalogs, articles, and manifestos that the artist has written, published, or collected over more than three decades are displayed in a way that invites communication.
The library space is transformed into a space of closeness—one of the most important aspects of Tillmans’ art. This was also the essence of the Public Information Library (BPI), known as a place where boundaries between art and life, high and low culture, and private and public were erased.
Art as Responsibility
Wolfgang Tillmans first attracted public attention in the late 1990s with photographs documenting the rave subculture, the queer community, and everyday moments of vulnerability and intimacy. These iconic works are also exhibited in Paris—in the context of what sets him apart from many others—his persistent fight against indifference: through art, but also through activism.
The End of an Era
At the Pompidou, Tillmans’ photographs, video works, installations, and texts do not tell just one narrative—they create a diverse emotional landscape. At this exhibition, you don’t simply pass by art—you live within it.
In the year the Pompidou closes its doors, Tillmans’ spatial installation stands as an intimate act, a political statement, and an open invitation to presence. Because—everything prepared us for this moment. And nothing could have prepared us.
It marks the end of an era for the Centre Pompidou and the Public Information Library (BPI) housed within it, which offered free access to literature, media, and intellectual exchange to all visitors without membership or restrictions.
Many Parisians have visited the exhibition not only to engage with Tillmans’ practice but also to revisit a space that has long played a public role in the city’s intellectual and cultural life. The BPI’s closure signals the end of an era for the Centre Pompidou, and this exhibition also acknowledges that moment.
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