Consequences of Combining Pictures from Outer Places in One Space

It does not matter whether Tillmans displays Neue Welt in a museum, in a gallery or in a book, these distinct places that had been captured around the world are combined within one local place. Together with his way of juxtaposing the pictures, for instance, the above- mentioned cottage on the beach is displayed next to the limousine in front of DeBeers. Papua New Guinea is placed next to New York. It becomes even more complex when Tillmans makes use of an older abstract series and places Silver 82 next to a picture from Neue Welt taken in a remote area of the world. Can this be seen as a “geographical disem- bedding” of different places?

The philosopher Philip Brey talks about geographical disembedding of place due to new technologies in his essay ‘Space-Shaping Technologies and the Geographical Disem- bedding of Place’. He argues that places are not associated with identity as often nowadays and that “the role of geographical features” in the identity making of places is further de- creasing. “Physical-geographical” characteristics disappear more and more and new tech- nology, such as photography, has broken free of the limitations of local places (Brey 1). The identity of a place changes. Based on Tuan’s definition of place, space becomes place once humans “endow it with value” (6), Brey defines “place as an area or space that is a habitual site of human activity and/or is conceived of in this way by communities or indi- viduals” (2). Due to the fact that humans naturally try to develop their connectedness, they attempt to overcome “the limitations of geographically situated places through efforts to ‘shrink’ or even abolish their distance to other geographical places” (Brey 4). The creation or shrinking of space and place is what Brey defines as “space shaping” and the technolo- gies capable of doing so are called “space-shaping technologies” (4). The inadequacy of the relative distances between places has increased with such technological development. It is not the distances between the geographical places that count any more, but the places that have grown together through the influence of space-shaping technologies (5).

When going back to the investigation of space and place in Tillmans’ Neue Welt, Brey’s argumentation becomes particularly interesting. Photography as a space-shaping technology has the power to decrease the relative distance between localities; something Neue Welt brings out. The exhibition space, no matter whether it is in a museum or in a book, comprises the outer places in one locality. These places, which may have an enor- mous geographical distance, are brought together. Furthermore, the simultaneous visibility of many different places in one locality makes visible how places have become the same in our globalized world. Some photographs, such as Headlight (a), 2012 [Fig. 20], do not

provide any references to a geographical place. Headlight (a) is a close-up photograph of a headlight with no references to the type of car or the place where that car was standing. The location where the photograph was taken remains completely unidentifiable. There are several similar pictures of close-ups of headlights in the exhibition space and the space of display in the book Neue Welt. The viewer knows they come from different geographical places, yet they seem to be the same. Similar reactions are triggered by bringing together non-places. One becomes aware of the similar appearance look of hotel rooms, shopping malls or airports, for instance. Groups of non-places are integrated within the corpus of photographs of anthropological places. The anthropological places let one know that there are indeed still places which are endowed with meaning and show an identifiable place. The various dimensions of our world become clear.

In this chapter, the question of how the context of the exhibition space and the book as a ‘place’ provide insights into various meanings of Tillmans’ photographs has been dis- cussed. The museum and gallery space as an institution provide a white cube in which art- works are exhibited in a certain way. Tillmans’ installations differ from the common prac- tice of displaying in an exhibition space. He displays his photographs in a non-hierarchical network and goes against the grain of exhibiting.

The consequences of opposed content is given in its full spectrum in the exhibition and the book. An impression of the entirety of the corpus of work can be achieved in spac- es of exhibitions. The viewer can focus on the different contents of the photographs and does not have to focus on only one image. One is able to grasp various kinds of opposi- tions conveyed through Neue Welt. While the contradictions in the book are made visible in Tillmans’ sequences, the exhibition space makes it visible while the viewer is standing in the midst of these oppositions. Depending on how Tillmans arranged the work, he comes up with new contrasts in each new installation. Photographs presented in one of his spatial installations change meanings in his body of work. Neue Welt is an example of Tillmans’ concept of artwork in which photography, the installation and the book become indivisible mediums. Only in the context of the exhibition space and the book as a ‘place’ are concepts of Tillmans’ new world and its oppositions made visible.