Silences

Notorious for his work staging episodes of his own life (real or fictive), Christian Boltanski places memory at the center of his artistic approach. Thus he mixes photography, texts and everyday objects in his installations that are deliberately “tinkered up”, while including a strongly emotional aspect. About the work Prendre la parole, he writes: “My idea was to translate the question “What is a human?” in the most abstract way possible.” The piece is composed of thirty-some “characters” summarily set on two wooden poles and “dressed” in a coat with a simple lamp for a head. These ghostly walkers stand out by the fact that they are whispering words, acquiring the status of individual thanks to their speech.

Prendre la parole, 2005
Wood, woollen coats, lamps, speakers, electronic maps, amplifiers; various dimensions
Courtesy of the artist and the Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris

© Adagp, Paris 2009

Paris, 1944 – Lives and works in Malakoff