“Today is the First Day” is Wolfgang Tillmans’s first monographic exhibition in Belgium. With works covering a period from the end of the 1980s to the present day, it is a true retrospective that occupies two entire floors of the Wiels. The artist’s interest in architecture is well known (his installation Book for Architects, bringing together 450 images taken in thirty-seven countries on five continents, was presented at the Venice Biennale of Architecture directed by Rem Koolhaas in 2013), and the building that houses the art center, built by Adrien Blomme in 1930, was clearly a source of inspiration in the design of this exhibition. The terrace at the top of the Wiels now offers a breathtaking view of a cosmopolitan district undergoing rapid urban and social change. Tillmans played with the idea of creating an exchange between the interior and exterior of the building, either by letting in natural light or by multiplying virtual windows in the hanging (Tree filling window, 2002; Wet Room, Gloves, 2010). Yet it is not the social or engaged component of his work that is highlighted by the exhibition poster, which reproduces 6407-35, an abstract work from 2007. It illustrates the artist’s experiments with printers and photocopiers since the late 1990s, culminating in the series How likely is it that only I am right in that matter? (2018). The “Silver” series, photographic papers that preserve the traces of their creation, is presented in a room in which a wall has been sandblasted, revealing the imperfections of the original concrete. The portraits that made Tillmans famous in the 1990s are of course present, with works such as Adam bleached out (1991), Lutz & Alex sitting in the trees (1992), or the hypnotic portrait of Chloë Sevigny (1995). For the millennials that crowded into the exhibition’s opening, these images illustrate an era they did not know, characterized by a form of carelessness that Tillmans would like to believe has not entirely disappeared, as can be seen in more recent works such as FKK Naturiste or Garten (2008). But the staging he has conceived with the curators of the Wiels mainly highlights his more experimental works (the “Freischwimmer” series of 2004, “Sendeschluss/End of Broadcast” of 2014). The video installations as well as the sound piece I Want to Make a Film (2018) at the end of the show, perfectly sum up the state of mind of an artist in perpetual quest for creative renewal.
