Contemporary Artists: Christian Boltanski

Part of the Contemporary Artists series.

One of the most important French contemporary artists, Christian Boltanski came to prominence with major exhibitions such as that at the Centre Georges Pompidour, Paris, in 1984 and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, in 1990. For his magical installations Boltanski collects old photos, clothing and personal objects which are presented as archival artefacts tracing individual lives. His own autobiography is itself presented as fiction, particularly in his early "mischievous" performative work which invents a self-identity using found photos.

Boltanski often uses everyday documents - passport photographs, school portraits and family albums - to memorialise ordinary people: the unknown children killed in the Holocaust, the citizens of a Swiss town or the employees of a Halifax carpet factory. The spaces he creates often filled with flickering lights and shadows, like somewhere between little theatres and churches, generating a sense of hushed wonder and a poignant evocation of loss. Boltanski's work has been presented in museums and public sites all over the world, including the Lyric Theatre, London, where the artist devised the stagesets and lighting for Schubert's 'Winter Reise' in 1996.

Didier Semin, curator and author, follows Boltanski's work from the fictional autobiographies through to recent installations in the context of cultural and art historical developments in post-war France. Boltanski discusses his work and the role of the artist with historian, Tamar Garb, and Donald Kuspit focuses on 'Monument: The Children Of Dijon', a work which consists of dozens of eerily lit, anonymous, black and white photographs of children long since lost to adulthood. The book also features a selection of Boltanski's own writings, a beguiling and provocative blend of truth and fiction.