Wolfgang Tillmans photographed at his 2017 Tate retrospective by Mat Smith

Wolfgang Tillmans enlists famous friends to help Corona-closed clubland

Elizabeth Peyton, Luc Tuymans, Elmgreen & Dragset, Gillian Wearing, Marlene Dumas, Thomas Ruff, Seth Price, Isa Genzken, Mark Leckey and Andreas Gursky will sell print posters to help locked down clubs, gig venues and bars

Wolfgang Tillmans first gained attention in the early 1990s for his photos which documented the gay scene and club culture in London for magazines such as i-D, The Face and Spex.

Now the socially-minded photographer is coming to the aid of the culture he documented so vividly, and which set him on a path to artistic and commericial success, half-a-lifetime ago.

 

Christopher Wool for Solidarity 2020
Christopher Wool for Solidarity 2020

Tillmans has enlisted the help of 50 international artists - including Thomas Ruff, Elizabeth Peyton, Luc Tuymans, Elmgreen & Dragset, Gillian Wearing, Seth Price, Isa Genzken, Mark Leckey, Marlene Dumas and Andreas Gursky - to sell print posters to help nightclubs, music venues and bars facing extinction due to the global lockdown.

 

Lum Tuymans for Solidarity 2020
Lum Tuymans for Solidarity 2020

Tillmans is making the print posters available for £50, $50 and €50 each - “a similar amount of money that you might have spent at one of these spaces on a night out,” he says. 

 

Wolfgang Tillmans for Solidarity 2020
Wolfgang Tillmans for Solidarity 2020

 

The fundraising campaign, Solidarity 2020, is being led by the photographer’s exhibition space Between Bridges in Berlin, Germany. 

“There are many places that may not get help or bailed out because they are informal places, in culture, nightlife, and music. I feel an urgency to do something so they don’t have to close down permanently,” the photographer says.

 

Elmgreen & Dragset for Solidarity 2020
Elmgreen & Dragset for Solidarity 2020

“Lots of people want to do something but they don’t know how or where and it’s really just an action where I connect artists who I either know or feel comfortable approaching to just give one design each,” Tillmans says. His aim is to give a financial boost to any artistic enterprise “where a lack of audience is causing an existential threat”.

 

Nicole Eisenman for Solidarity 2020
Nicole Eisenman for Solidarity 2020

Tillmans will pay for the printing and shipping of the print posters to venues, who will sell them from their websites, and receive 100% of the proceeds.

 

Andreas Gursky for Solidarity 2020
Andreas Gursky for Solidarity 2020

Nicole Eisenman has created a new work for the project, Never Forget Kissing in Bars. Gillian Wearing has donated her 1992 photograph All I Ever Wanted Was Love featuring a young man whose face is covered by a scarf. Other artists taking part include Spyros Rennt, David Lindert, Stefan Fahler, Melanie Bonajo, Tomma Abts and Betty Tompkins.

 

Marlene Dumas for Solidarity 2020
Marlene Dumas for Solidarity 2020

Tillmans’ photograph, of three vases hit by sunlight in his studio, is especially poignant -  it was the last image the photographer printed before closing his Berlin studio early last month.

 

Gillian Wearing for Solidarity 2020
Gillian Wearing for Solidarity 2020

See more imagery at Solidarity 2020. Venues at risk can get in touch with Between Bridges at 2020Solidarity@betweenbridges.net

 

Thomas Ruff for Solidarity 2020
Thomas Ruff for Solidarity 2020