Wolfgang Tillmans is continuously broadening the thematic scope of his works – which encompass portraits, interiors, landscapes, still lives and abstract photography. The artist also concentrates on the process of photography itself, on trying to make use of its range of possibilities. He unceasingly investigates the borders of the medium and experiments with ways of presenting his works, combining different types of photography, and diverse formats and materials. Through this he has succeeded in creating not only a new photographic language, but also his own forms of exhibition, showing his photographs and collages in unusual installations. The artist treats the exhibition area as a whole, dividing its space with his works: in this way he focuses particularly on the painterly and sculptural dimensions of his works, and the composition of the elements of an exhibition in architecture.

In Zachęta, Wolfgang Tillmans presents a configuration of works created especially for the gallery rooms, demonstrating the themes and motifs that have been photographically preoccupying him over the last ten years. Thus, at the exhibition are to be found abstract photographs from the series paper drops and Freischwimmer, as well as a selection from newer works – Weltbilder. Also to be shown are five video works by the artist and his truth study center tables, in other words installations on tables which, in a similar way to a documentary archive combine photography with press cuttings, photocopies, offset prints and fliers. The exhibition will be accompanied by a German-Polish catalogue with a richly illustrated section presenting works by the artist, and texts by Isabelle Malz, Jacek Dehnel, Hanna Wróblewska and Wolfgang Tillmans himself.

The exhibition Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf presented at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. Project organised as part of the North Rhine-Westphalia Cultural Season in Poland 2011/2012 with the support of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.