Wolfgang Tillmans at the Centre Pompidou: A Carte Blanche to Visual Memory
From June 13 to September 22, 2025, the Centre Pompidou offers carte blanche to German-British artist Wolfgang Tillmans for a monumental and sensory exhibition that takes over the 6,000 m² of the former Public Information Library (Bpi). Titled Nothing Prepared Us – Everything Prepared Us, this extraordinary installation is also a symbolic moment: it is the Centre Pompidou’s final major exhibition before closing for five years of renovation.
An Immersive Exhibition at the Crossroads of Image and Architecture
Rather than a traditional retrospective, Tillmans presents a total installation, conceived as a work of art in itself. He embraces the space in all its architectural depth, playing with the memory of the building: carpets, shelving, bare walls, and disused areas are all woven into the scenography. The exhibition becomes a kind of palimpsest, where each layer reveals a past use, a trace of time.
Far from static wall displays, the artist transforms the venue into a vast visual and soundscape. Large-format photographs, small free-hanging prints, photocopies, videos, audio recordings, and performances immerse the viewer in a sensory flow. Each work interacts with others, forming a fluid choreography that blurs the lines between public and private, image and memory.
35 Years of Creative Motion
Tillmans presents more than three decades of work in all its diversity. His poetic still lifes, intimate portraits, abstract compositions, documentary-style photography, and political works are all present. Signature pieces like Moon in Earthlight (2015) and Panorama (2006 and 2024) are shown alongside smaller-scale works: postcards, inkjet prints, protest posters.
Elements from rave culture, queer communities, and activist circles permeate the exhibition. Immersive videos and sound pieces, such as I want to make a film (2018), enrich this multi-sensory experience—a deeply personal and collective exploration of what it means “to see” today.
A Meditation on Memory and Transmission
More than just a contemporary art show, this carte blanche interrogates how images—and information more broadly—circulate and transform. By juxtaposing old and new technologies, from grainy photocopies to 4K digital files, Tillmans questions how much we trust our eyes, our screens, and our media.
His work, shaped by themes like memory, perception, community, and activism, resonates deeply in a place dedicated to knowledge and culture. For a few final months, the Centre Pompidou becomes the stage for a visual meditation on our times.
