“What I find most appealing in people is how they are aware of their own fragility and yet are still strong and independent beings. I want to communicate this complexity in its entirety, that lack of a singular reading, and to channel the multi-layered character and the contradictions of a personality, the way they’re revealed in clothes, in styles, in attitudes, and the way a person lives. It’s the fractured reality of identity that  fascinates me.” Wolfgang Tillmans The exhibition Fragile provides a comprehensive overview of the many-facetted work of Wolfgang Tillmans and contains more than 200 works from 1986 to 2020. Large-scale prints, smaller photographic prints, sculptural objects and tabletop installations are part of this exhibition as well as video projections and publication projects.

Wolfgang Tillmans’ artistic work is based on his never-ceasing curiosity, his intensive research in preparation, and a constant dealing with the medium of photography and its technical and aesthetic potential. His visual language derives from precise observation that reveals a deeply human approach to our environment. Familiarity and empathy, as well as friendship, community and intimacy are visible and tangible in his pictures. For Tillmans, acceptance of the fragility that determines us as individuals and that plays into our relations with each other is not a weakness it is a great strength. He uses failure, ruptures, and frailty as impulses to develop new processes. They refer to the imperfect nature of our lives and  they reveal unanticipated perspectives on their materiality. In these ways, Fragile highlights precious moments in life and the meaning of social and family ties, in particular in times of social and political instability.

1. Scenes from the  Installation of FRAGILE exhibition by Wolfgang Tillmans installation assistant  Juan Pablo Echeverri(RIP), Anders Clausen and Lovelyn  Isreal Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, 28th May, 2022.Photo by  Peter Okotor.
2. Scenes from the  FRAGILE exhibition opening,Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, 28th May, 2022. Photo by Oludamilare Solomon
3. Scenes from the  Installation of FRAGILE exhibition by Wolfgang Tillmans, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, 28th May, 2022. Photo by Peter Okotor
4. Installation shot of FRAGILE exhibition,Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, 28th May, 2022. Photo by  Peter  Okotor

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