‘The state of arts funding is dire, and this government is not going to expand it’ … Wolfgang Tillmans. Photograph: Sarah Bohn

The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London has a new director charged with making the venue a party till 6 a.m. Tillmans, the facility's chair, has also organized an art auction to generate money.

Wolfgang Tillmans, a young German photographer, was captivated by the impact of art in 1994 when touring the ICA in London with his parents. "I brought them to the Charles Ray show, where there was a sculpture of a mother, a father, and a newborn girl that was scaled to the same height, making the infants seem like really ominous giants. It probably offended my mother's sense of the natural order of things, which is why she was so upset by it. Never will I forget it.

Nearly 28 years later, Tillmans is a well-known artist in his own right; his retrospective show, To Look Without Fear, is now taking up an entire floor at MoMA in New York; and, as of 2019, he has served as the board chair of the ICA. The institution, which is close to Buckingham Palace and still has a mandate to be on the leading edge of art, is striving to reclaim its identity following the epidemic, which in addition to forcing its temporary closure greatly decreased the number of visitors to the West End.

“For the connoisseur”: Robert Gobert’s Rat Bait. Photograph: Sotheby's

According to Tillmans, the ICA must "make people aware that there is this spot in the most established part of London that is underground, progressive, and also has a really late license." In order to do this, he selected Bengi Ünsal, the former head of contemporary music at Southbank Centre, to lead the ICA and oversee the well-known annual Meltdown events. Stefan Kalmár, who oversaw a visual arts-focused program for five years, was succeeded by her.

The ICA's live performance program will be expanded as part of Ünsal's plan, according to Tillmans, who also highlights the venue's multidisciplinary nature (in addition to a gallery and performance space, it also houses an increasingly uncommon arthouse cinema in London). This will help "put the ICA back on a sustainable footing with a new mix of programming that brings back evening audiences, activates the bar, and uses the late license that we have," he adds.

Arts Council England provided the ICA with 21% of its financing last year, totaling £862,441; but, according to Tillmans, "there's a shortfall every year." The aim is for the ICA to become self-funding via Ünsal's programming, which includes club nights that last until 6 a.m. and a relationship with ticket app Dice. When she was the director of Istanbul's Salon IKSV, which received no public financing, Ünsal gained expertise in making an artistic organization support itself solely via sponsorship, brand collaborations, and ticket sales.

Raymond Pettibon’s No Title (However I am...), part of the ICA’s auction. Photograph: Kerry McFate/Sotheby’s

Tillmans has planned an auction for Sotheby's on October 15 to fill the financial shortfall at the ICA until Ünsal's proposal takes effect. Works have been provided by artists with ties to the ICA, such as Tacita Dean, Richard Prince, and Anish Kapoor: Tillmans anticipates at least £1.5 million in revenue from the deal. Because the financial situation for the arts is grave and this administration won't increase it, "some works are so outstanding that we might make more." Two of his favorite pieces are a large Raymond Pettibon painting that depicts a surfer riding a wave, valued between £200,000 and £300,000, and Robert Gober's sculpture Rat Bait from a 1992 exhibition. According to Tillmans, "it's definitely for a connoisseur," preferably one with £80,000 to £120,000 to spare.

Decriminalized Futures, an exhibition of artwork created by sex workers, was presented by the ICA this year. It was promptly criticized by the Mail on Sunday, which brought back memories of the outrage caused by notoriously provocative performances by artists like Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Nuebauten at the ICA (whose 1984 concert involved them destroying the venue using drills). The history of anti-racist activity in Tottenham was investigated in the exhibition War Inna Babylon last summer, which was scheduled to coincide with the 10-year mark since Mark Duggan was killed there by a police shooting.

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Such displays, according to Tillmans, are the form of things to come: "Who's the aim, to create an exhibition centered on London groups that are under-represented or have experienced injustices in the past. A big success was War in Babylon.

Co-curatror Stafford Scott of Tottenham Rights at War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle For Truths And Rights at the ICA last year. Photograph: Tim P Whitby/Getty Images for Institute of Contemporary Arts

However, other people saw it as social history rather than art. But is it art? is often posed in response to avant-garde activities or shows that examine current events, says Tillmans. "The liberation of people through artistic expression has always gone hand in hand; they cannot be separated."

He makes reference to Christopher Kulendran Thomas' upcoming exhibition at the ICA. "On the one side, it is about the unsuccessful revolutionary battle for a Tamil homeland that he is related to, but on the other, it is a very aesthetically appealing, high-tech cinematic work that makes use of technology that hasn't really been seen in the UK. It was one of our most challenging projects to date. In doing so, [the ICA] is attempting to create the most visually stunning material possible.

The ICA auction is part of the Contemporary Day Auction at Sotheby’s in London on 14-15 October. Christopher Kulendran Thomas: Another World is at ICA until 22 January

Thanks to Alex Needham at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.