wolfgang tillmans recruits creatives to promote EU elections in 'vote together' campaign

wolfgang tillmans is calling on creatives across europe in an attempt to encourage voter participation in the 2019 EU elections. for the project, entitled ‘vote together’, the german artist, photographer and activist, has created an open source, print-at-home poster campaign, which has spread across the entire european bloc.

wolfgang tillmans, image © karol radziszewski. cover image: rem koolhaas, image © dana lixenberg. header image (right): valletta contemporary, malta, courtesy of vote together

spanning 24 european languages, vote together includes shareable images, video content, self-printing posters, and voter information about the upcoming elections in each respective countries. taking place between may 23 and may 26, the european elections sees citizens of the european union vote for their representatives in the european parliament.

more than a dozen creatives have been recruited to help launch the pan-european collaborative project. in addition to coming up with slogans and creating video content for the campaign, tillmans contacted photographers, including thomas hoepker and karol radziszewski, to send t-shirts and self-organise photo shoots.

thomas hoepker, image © thomas hoepker

tillmans also collaborated with fashion photographer nick knight to produce a series of posters featuring slogans such as, ‘there is more that connects us than divides us,’ and ‘the freedom to think to love to live. europe‘. not limited to just professionals, designer andreas kronthaler recently documented his wife, fellow designer vivienne westwood, wearing a vote together t-shirt.

‘there is more that connects us than divides us’ poster, by wolfgang tillmans and nick knight, courtesy of vote together

tillmans has long been an advocate of pro-european ideals. last weekend, the photographer marched with 5,000 people in berlin for the ‘unite & shine’ campaign, a demonstration against the restriction of artistic freedom and a response to rising far-right nationalism across the EU.

vivienne westwood by andreas kronthaler, image courtesy of vote together

‘what we are experiencing is a reactionary rebellion against a hundred years of social progress,’ he said at the event, according to german magazine monopol. ‘after three and a half years of part-time dedication to activism, i’ve concluded that above all democracy comes down to electoral participation. what’s really necessary is mediating through the basic principle of one person, one voice.‘

michel gaubert, image © katja rahlwes

vote together was initiated by between bridges, a non-profit foundation for the advancement of democracy, international understanding, the arts, and lgbt rights. the foundation is an extension of tillmans’ berlin-based exhibition space with has the same name, which was founded by tillmans in 2006 as an exhibition space in the entrance of his london studio. it was relocated to berlin in 2014.

‘not voting is not neutral’, graphic courtesy of vote together

in 2016, tillmans declared that between bridges would focus its efforts on the ongoing european migrant crisis with an initiative entitled ‘meeting place’. the project which was described as a mix of exhibitions, social gatherings and information sharing. last year, he teamed up with rem koolhaas’s design studio OMA to launch a campaign thinking about fresh ways to communicate the EU over the course of a four day workshop in amsterdam.