Faced with the inevitability of his own death, Christian Boltanski, who died on July 14, multiplied the autobiographical pieces before questioning fate and challenging time through perennial works with symbolic and legendary scope.
Staging the countdown that he remains to live, Christian Boltanski, disappeared on July 14, 2021, sold his personal archives by accumulating them in a series of reliquary lockers before representing aging in the video in the meantime in 2003 and D'Exposing a counter displaying the seconds since its birth on September 6, 1944, until the last (last second, 2012).This freezing work talks about the inevitability of its own death, and ours, as it is true that according to the plastic artist, "the great object of art is to talk about what is the most individual by making it become collective, that everyone can say: this is my story."Also the notion of time becomes fundamental from the 2000s in these autobiographical works, as in the speaking clock (2009) installed in the crypt of the cathedral of Salzburg, which is infinite time."It's a parable.Being human, it is to fight against God-or chance, according to the name we give him-but there is an area where we will always be losing: time, "he explained.
Nose to death
Christian Boltanski challenged time.The artist has "sold" his life to David Walsh, an Australian professional art player who exhibits many works on the theme of death in his private museum, the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobartin Tasmania.Until his disappearance, he was filmed in his workshop, and the images broadcast live in a "cave" of the museum, the people coming to visit him being part of the work.The collector has accumulated thousands of hours of films stored on DVDs, which he can only exploit after the artist's death."This work randomly conditioned by my lifespan, I sold it" to life ".This casino player who claims to be stronger than chance made the bet that I would die in 2017, but I have survived until then.It is a piece linked to myth, a Faustian pact with the devil, an allegory of aging and chance.This part raises questions: can we buy someone's life?David Walsh has thousands of hours of me, but he bought my memory, not my mind.»»
Christian Boltanski, Departure, 2015 86, Bulbs and electric wires.185 x 283 cm © Rebecca Fantesy Marian Goodman Gallery
Replay the work of art
Chance - or fate - fascinated Christian Boltanski, who explored fatality by building devices where life is similar to a lottery. À la Biennale de Venise de 2011 où il a représenté la France, son œuvre Chance met en scène des « chaises parlantes»»» qui, lorsqu’on s’assied, déclenchent une voix demandant en plusieurs langues : « Est-ce la dernière fois ?»»», rappelant l’épée de Damoclès imprévisible qui pèse sur chacune de nos têtes.In addition, a machinery installed in the heart of a labyrinth of scaffolding scrolls at high speed a treadmill covered with a multitude of new photographs.
"At my age, I feel like I am walking on a mines field.My friends jump and I continue, until the next explosion "»
Parfois une sonnerie stridente retentit et cette « roue de la chance»»» s’arrête quelques secondes sur l’un des visages des nourrissons dont l’image s’affiche sur un écran.Fate has struck: this child, whose life was still only a white page, will escape the banality of an existence without history.For the best or for the worst. Cette notion de hasard était déjà présente dans l’œuvre Personnes au Grand Palais à Paris à l’occasion de « Monumenta»»» en 2010, symbolisant la fortune ou l’infortune touchant les uns ou les autres."A crane ended by a grapple personified the hand of God apparently striking the blind the humans represented by clothes and throwing them into the void.Why this one and not this one?At my age, I feel like I am walking on a mines field.My friends jump and I continue, until the next explosion "», expliquait l’artiste.
Christian Boltanski, Personnes, 2010
Monumenta 2010, Grand Palais, Paris
©Didier Plowy
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery
Designer of several shows, the ephemeral dimension of the theater led him to design this immersive work where all the senses are asked - whose feeling of cold under the glass roof of the Grand Palais - which was then adapted to Milan, New York,In Japan and Shanghai."What I do today is to write a musical score.The installations that I create, just like musical works or plays, can be replayed.As long as I am alive, I try to play my music, then it will be a work of Boltanski interpreted by such or such a person.»»»
Myths and legends
Mais ce qui intéresse plus que tout Christian Boltanski, c’est de construire à travers le monde un certain nombre de lieux permanents, lointains et difficiles à atteindre, afin de créer de nouveaux «mythes»»» fondés sur des actions à portée symbolique.Thus he erected in an isolated place in Patagonia three huge trumpet-shaped pipes with the help of acousticians (Misterios, 2017).When a strong wind shakes the coast, it rushes inside these trunk that emit sounds similar to the cry of whales migrating to the region.The Patagonians consider the whale as a wise and secular creature whose knowledge goes back to the time when the world began."One day, these trunks will fall with the storm. Mais il est possible que plus tard, dans la région, longtemps après mon départ, on dise qu’un fou est venu et a parlé aux baleines»»», sourit Christian Boltanski.
Animitas (Small Souls), 2014, In situ installation, Atacama Desert, Chile © Christian Boltanski Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery
De même Animitas (2014) – qui signifie « petites âmes»»» en espagnol – parle des esprits.The installation diffuses the sound of hundreds of Japanese bells balanced by the wind in the Atacama desert (Chile), a mystical place, at four thousand meters above sea level, where we see the stars in the world best.Fixed to the ground, these bells draw the celestial card of the day of the artist's birth. Mais ce n’est plus la même configuration, ni sur l’île de Teshima au Japon où l’œuvre a été « rejouée»»» (La Forêt des murmures, 2016), devenue un lieu votif où les visiteurs achètent une clochette, la plantent et la dédient à quelqu’un, ni sur l’Île d’Orléans au Québec (Animitas (Blanc), 2017), ou sur les falaises surplombant la mer Morte en Israël (Animitas, mer Morte, 2017)."I believe a lot in minds - we are surrounded by many deaths. Je choisis chaque fois un lieu ayant une charge symbolique forte»»», confie l’artiste.
Heartbeats
Christian Boltanski sought to create legends going beyond the materiality of the work.In a fishing house with burnt wood walls, on Teshima Island, it had set up the Archives du Coeur in 2010, a place conducive to meditation where thousands of heartbeat are kept over the course ofyears, from Berlin to Paris, from Seoul to Buenos Aires."The Japanese who come here do not know my name. Ils viennent comme dans un lieu de pèlerinage écouter le cœur de leurs proches, après avoir traversé la mer intérieure de Seto»»», explique le plasticien qui vient d’inaugurer un nouveau lieu de collecte dans la montagne à Wulong (Chine), le Pavillon du Cœur.One version will remain on site, and another will go to Teshima to enlarge the Central Bank of the Archives of the Heart. « Si je survis, je compte ouvrir d’autres endroits permanents en Afrique, en Amérique latine et en Europe»», espérait-il.Since then, he has multiplied the projects of exhibitions and lasting places: a memorial in Fukushima, a project in the no man’s land separating the two Koreas. « Je ne peux pas mourir avant 2021, j’ai des engagements jusque-là»»», ironisait-t-il…
Myriam Boutoulle Journalist
