Cocks, kisses and Concorde – Wolfgang Tillmans is the man with the ability to turn ordinary things into extraordinary things. I once saw him at a party, but I was too afraid to say hello. I now regret this fact, as clearly if I had have talked to him I would now have been his muse and my artful nudes would be making waves in the art world. It could have all been so different. My penis could have been a star! Alas – either way, for all our expertise in the world of art, we all agree that Mr Tillmans is a very important photographer of our generation. And so do the Tate, because they are giving him his very own exhibition at the Tate Modern in 2017. “Wolfgang Tillmans will present a survey of his work spanning four decades to the present day,” they announced on their website this week. “This will include striking photography, video, publications and music – and a ten day takeover of the South Tank in the new Switch House.” It’s the second time he’s held an exhibition at the Tate, the first in 2003, just three years after he won the Turner Prize. It also comes with news that he will also turn his Berlin project space, Between Bridges, into a centre to help refugees in an initative entitled “Meeting place”. “Meeting Place is an attempt to open a space for dialogue,” he said in a statement, to “show that of course we can try to work this out, if only we start to get to know each other”.
