Our exhibition is a tribute to the great French artist Christian Boltanski, who passed away last July. We show selected editions in which various aspects of his work come to light.
The art of Christian Boltanski, who was born in Paris in 1944, is shaped by memories of the Holocaust and the reconstruction of his own past. In the cramped, half-dark spaces that he created in his installations, with the props that anonymously referred to people and their fates, the musty mountains of clothing, the stacked zinc crates and the patinated black-and-white photographs, he created an oppressive atmosphere of personal concern that was difficult to bear is. These installations have become icons of the art of memory.
He also acted subversively, because in one of his most important works, the 1200-photo installation Menschlich from 1994, he mixed portraits of the deceased victims with pictures of German soldiers and SS people, of perpetrators. As part of his exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in 2013, Boltanski said: “I no longer know who is the perpetrator and who is the victim. It just so happens that a man can love his child and kill another child at the same time. Everyone has what it takes to turn into a devil from time to time. But even the devil sometimes takes a break.” – A commentary on the horrors of war, which has unfortunately become very topical again. Boltanski had Ukrainian roots himself, and we will miss his artistic statement in these times. The exhibition features signed photogravures and lithographs that were edited in a small edition.
Christian Boltanski. Editions.
Opening: Friday, May 6, 2022, 7 p.m.
May 7 – June 18, 2022