Glade / Clairière", by Wolfgang Tillmans at Galerie Chantal Crousel

Exactly one year after the closing of his solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and one year after his visit as a visiting professor at Beaux-Arts, Wolfgang Tillmans returns to Galerie Chantal Crousel with "Glade / Clairière"—a term that designates a clearing, a place through which light passes, in direct reference to both photography and the tradition of landscape in art. The exhibition investigates the line as a central element of his work, divided between two opposing impulses that dissolve in the final image: deliberately drawn lines and lines that emerge from a relationship of trust with the world, treated as a partner in the construction of the image, not just as a recorded subject. Among the highlights is a sculptural installation with large rings of industrial rope, originally used for towing ships, arranged directly on the gallery floor—circular forms without beginning or end that evoke cohesion and robust, yet not indestructible, connection systems. The "Lighter" series (2005 – ongoing) revisits folded photosensitive paper exposed to colored light as an almost sculptural support, while "Intervention, a" (2026) is born from drops of water thrown by the artist himself and photographed in motion, playing with the ambiguity between chance and construction.