The latest exhi­bi­tion in the tem­po­rary loca­tion for the Stedelijk Museum CS will be a show curated by Wolf­gang Till­mans (b. 1968) which includes his own work sit­u­ated amongst other artists. The show is enti­tled, Pres­ence of Mind, and will run through June 20th – Sep­tem­ber 30th, 2008. While pre­vi­ous works will be included, the show will also include the museum’s recent acqui­si­tion, an instal­la­tion by Till­mans titled, Stedelijk Room.

In the forth­com­ing exhi­bi­tion at the Stedelijk, Till­mans reveals the con­nec­tions between his own work and that of a number of kin­dred spir­its in the art world. Some, like German artist Isa Gen­zken, with whom Till­mans has exhib­ited on a number of occa­sions, share his free and easy approach to images and mate­ri­als. Others, like René Daniëls and Daan van Golden, are artists who con­stantly rede­ploy their own stock of images in new ways. Till­mans also cre­ates a dia­logue between his own exper­i­ments with the abstract qual­i­ties of the pho­to­graphic image and the work of Ellsworth Kelly, Morris Louis, Robert Man­gold and Niele Toroni. The socially com­mit­ted, polit­i­cal aspect of his oeuvre is reflected in his selec­tion of Roberto Matta, Peter Hujar and Timur Novikov.

The new instal­la­tion, Stedelijk Room, will be a col­lec­tion of his work combining:

[...] abstract images with por­traits, land­scapes, still lifes and town­scapes. Till­mans even includes odd ref­er­ences to Amsterdam/The Nether­lands, such as his self-​portrait Moss­hat (1988), made during a period in Ams­ter­dam in his twen­ties, and a pho­to­graph of a paint­ing of William of Orange. There is also an image that refers to one of the first abstract com­po­si­tions he ever made, on the occa­sion of the 1998 From the Corner of the Eye exhi­bi­tion at the Stedelijk. Iconic works from Till­mans’ oeuvre included in Stedelijk Room are Lutz & Alex, climb­ing tree (1992), police heli­copter (1995), man piss­ing on chair (1997) and the black-and-white image of an inter­twined group of friends Arka­dia I (1996). In con­trast to these ear­lier pho­tographs, there are also recent, large-​scale abstracts like Freis­chwim­mer 118 (2005) and Silver 50 (2006). Finally, Stedelijk Room includes three tables cov­ered with mon­tages of pho­tographs and cut­tings from news­pa­pers and mag­a­zines which are in per­ma­nent dia­logue with the images dis­played on the walls.