Memories and Christian Boltanski

970 Words2 Pages

Christian Boltanski, as an artist, has placed an importance on the theme of memories and how they can be used to suppress the idea of despair. Memories are seen as a powerful tool in order to diffuse these ideas of despair and disillusionment in a modern world. A large portion of humanity has learned to base most of their individual identities on collective experiences as a whole. Much of Boltanski’s work explores how some of that individualism gets lost within shared experiences through the concept of memory. As an artist, this significant theme used in his work has helped re-establish a certain sense of belonging in correlation to his own identity and what it has transformed into. This form of remembering is incorporated in his own work as a way of defining his universal sense of belonging. Christian Boltanski presents a collective understanding over the loss of his true identity in his work involving the theme of memories through the representation of images and material objects.
Boltanski has contributed to the art world for several years now and through that time; the media (as well as other observational sources) has kept an overflowing archive of information on him as an artist. Although most of the information we, as viewers, remember him by are most likely true, we can never really know how much these opinions and observations about him have altered his sense of self and what he truly belongs to. Boltanski has expressed in multiple interviews how these biographies have slowly disintegrated the story of his life and how his work has illustrated a new purpose his life now represents.
Being a multi-media artist, Boltanski has expressed his ideas and messages through numerous types of elements in his works. Photography has pl...

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...d due to what ‘we’ ultimately decide to remember about him; his viewers in the end will be the ones who define what group he belongs to since the true reality of his past has been lost.

Works Cited

Borchardt-Hume, Achim. "A Revolution In Art Publishing." Art Book 5.3 (1998): 15. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
McGurren, Diane D. "Becoming Mythical: Existence And Representation In The Work Of Christian Boltanski." Afterimage 38.1 (2010): 9-13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Hirsch, Robert. "Boltanski Time." Afterimage 35.1 (2007): 37. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Caines, Rebbecca. "Christian Boltanski." Afterimage 32.1 (2004): 4-5. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
"From A Mountain Of Lost Souls To An Island Of Heartbeats." Art In America 98.5 (2010): 33-34. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

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