Wolfgang Tillmans: 2017 at Tate Modern

Wolfgang Tillmans, the first photographer to win the Turner Prize in 2000 and the first non-British artist to receive the award, presents a comprehensive survey at Tate Modern. The exhibition explores his critical engagement with photography's potential, spanning from analog to digital work. Key series include 'Neue Welt' (2009–2012), marking his shift to digital photography, and 'Truth Study Center' (2005–present), an archival installation of academic studies, advertisements, and newspaper clippings on politics, science, and scandals, exposing fake news and alternative facts in a post-truth era. Tillmans also documents the rave generation of the 1980s and 1990s, capturing ecstasy and tragedy with a lyrical eye, as seen in portraits of his late partner Jochen Klein ('Für immer Burgen', 1997) and friends ('Lutz & Alex sitting in the trees', 1992). The exhibition highlights his political activism, particularly his campaign for Remain in the 2016 UK Brexit referendum, featuring posters with slogans like 'No Man is an Island, No Country by Itself' and images of Daniel Craig and Vivienne Westwood. Curator Chris Dercon describes Tillmans as 'a Renaissance man of our time,' while Tate Modern director Frances Morris calls the show 'about the present, but also about the past in the present, and events of recent years, starting with the Gulf War.' The exhibition runs until June 11, 2017.