Christian Boltanski, mixed media, 1989
The French artist of Jewish origin, born during the war, recently died on the French national holiday. Christian Boltanski maintains a sociological position in art, in which he wants to dig up the individual from the stored historical archives. With his ‘Spurensicherer’, he reconstructs the past from photography, video and mended toys.
‘Le reliquaire’ refers to the trauma of the Holocaust. An installation in which the photo of a murdered child is venerated as a relic, many small lights take over the function of prayer candles. The artist presents here an encyclopaedic rationality, a monument of death, as it were.
– For more works by this artist, contact the gallery. –