Four summer dates let you walk into Wolfgang Tillmans’s first Paris show in 23 years for free, courtesy of Celine.
The Centre Pompidou has asked German image-maker Wolfgang Tillmans to stage the final exhibition on its calendar before the building closes for renovation later this year. Tillmans answers by turning the entire second floor of the public library, a 6,000-square-metre grid of study desks and shelving, into a living archive of photographs, video loops, sound pieces and printed ephemera. Visitors move through reading tables instead of white cubes, encouraged to sit, flip through zines and circle back.
Celine is picking up the ticket tab under its new Accès Libre program. Entry is free on four dates – 13 June 13, July 3,August 28 and September 22 – and covers the full opening hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Reserve online, walk straight in, and wander at your own pace.
The timing carries weight. Tillmans, still the only photographer to win the Turner Prize, has not shown at this scale in Paris since 2002. His return doubles as a last look at Renzo Piano’s high-tech landmark before a five-year closure for asbestos removal and structural repairs that will keep the doors shut until 2030.
The show’s title, Nothing Could Have Prepared Us – Everything Could Have Prepared Us, points to the artist’s long-standing belief that culture should be open and shared. News clippings hang next to chemically altered abstractions, club fliers rest beside large-format portraits, and the boundary between artwork and archive dissolves.
Mark the free-access dates, arrive early, and claim a seat in the stacks while the lights are still on.
