Enduring Endeavours

Ahead of his solo exhibition at David Zwirner Hong Kong, the world-renowned photographer Wolfgang Tillmans tells Taller why he hopes his work is timeless and why viewing art in person is an irreplaceable experience

- Aaina Bhargava

Branches long and short, and leaves in varying shades of green and yellow in an assortment of sizes fill your vision as soon as you set foot in Wolfgang Tillmans’ airy Berlin studio. The sheer size of the space in a 1930s modernist building—four large rooms, covering 7,000 square feet among them—gives Tillmans the space to present his photographs in large format, with some being life-sized portraits.

In fact, one of his works, Window Left Open (2023), offers a glimpse of this foliage through Tillmans’ studio window, framed by leafy branches. Taken at twilight, the image reflects a reddish-pink shadow that creates a nightclub-like effect. It will be on view at the artist’s forthcoming exhibition in Hong Kong, opening on March 25. This is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition with David Zwirner and his second in Hong Kong. The previous one, in March 2018 during Art Basel Hong Kong, inaugurated the gallery’s space in the city.

Tillmans’ impact and influence go far beyond the world of art and photography. He is known for making acute observations and capturing the cultural pulse of the moment. Some of those observations are timeless. “I want to strengthen what I feel is lacking,” he says. “At the same time, this positive outlook does not mean that I am not highly critically observing contemporary life and politics.” One of his most iconic works, The Cock (Kiss) (2002), depicting two men in the midst of a passionate kiss, went viral after the devastating 2016 shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.