Catalog, Wolfgang Tillmans

Press release

Designed as a continuation of the exhibition that opened on June 13, 2025, the catalog Wolfgang Tillmans. Rien ne nous y préparait – Tout nous y préparait (Wolfgang Tillmans. Nothing prepared us for it – Everything prepared us for it) is available in bookstores and the Centre Pompidou online store. It brings together a collection of texts and photographs, including 68 pages devoted to views of the monumental installation displayed on the plateau of the Bibliothèque publique d'information. The richness of its content reflects the artist's universe, his interest in the architecture of Centre Pompidou, and his fascination with paper in all its forms, whether aesthetic or informative.

Both an archival document and a work in its own right, the book is composed of five chapters that reflect five major themes in Wolfgang Tillmans' perception of the world. It brings together texts by several authors, combining established figures and voices from a new generation of photography historians, as well as an unpublished exchange between Renzo Piano and Tillmans. These writings are accompanied by plates offering an immersion into the richness of his photographic archives, as well as in situ shots of the exhibition, forming both a documentary record and an extended reflection on it.

Curated by

Florian Ebner, Chief Curator, Photography Department, Musée national d’art moderne − Centre Pompidou

Associate Curators
Olga Frydryszak-Rétat, Matthias Pfaller, Photography Department, Musée national d’art moderne − Centre Pompidou