Dimensions: image: 307 x 206 mm
Copyright: © Wolfgang Tillmans, courtesy Maureen Paley, London | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Wolfgang Tillmans’s "Concorde Grid," a photographic installation from an undetermined date, held here at the Tate. It’s fascinating how he’s arranged these small photos – a grid of fleeting glimpses. What strikes you about this work? Curator: It’s a compelling visual essay on modernity and technology's impact on our perception. The Concorde, a symbol of technological advancement, is juxtaposed against mundane, almost banal, landscapes. Does this suggest a critique of progress? Editor: A critique? I hadn’t thought of that. I was more focused on the repetition and the slightly off-kilter feeling it creates. Curator: Exactly. This deliberate disruption, this grid of fleeting moments, forces us to question the promises of technology. Is it bringing us closer to something, or just speeding us past everything? Consider how the museum space itself elevates these snapshots. Editor: So, it’s not just about the Concorde, but about how we frame and understand its cultural significance. I’ll never look at a grid the same way again!
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Tillmans photographed Concorde from ground level, under the flight path or outside the airport perimeter fence. He says his pictures ‘are a representation of an unprivileged gaze or view ... I like to assume exactly the position that everybody can take’. Rather than thinking of these machines as luxurious and inaccessible, Tillmans celebrates our desire for a utopian future when previously unimaginable technology becomes part of everyday life. Tillmans took the photographs before Concorde was retired in 2003 following the crash three years earlier in which all passengers and crew were killed. Knowing this perhaps changes the way we perceive the photographs. Gallery label, July 2017
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