Christian Boltanski - Couverture souple

Boltanski, Christian

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0714836583 ISBN 13 : 9780714836584

Editeur : Phaidon, 1999

Synopsis

One of the most important French contemporary artists, Christian Boltanski came to prominence with major exhibitions such as that at the Centre Georges Pompidou, 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 memorialize 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, lie 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.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Didier Semin, curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou and author of important texts on modern and contemporary artists, 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 art historian Tamar Garb, author of Sisters of the Brush (Yale University Press, 1994) and co-editor of The Jew in the Text (Thames and Hudson, 1995). Donald Kuspit, contributing editor to Artforum, 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. Boltanski has chosen texts by master postmodern novelist Georges Perec written in an inventory-like style which mirrors that of the artist. The book also features a selection of Boltanski's own writings, a beguiling and provocative blend of truth and fiction. A PAL standard video of Christian Boltanski in conversation with Melvyn Bragg is available from Phaidon Press.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Phaidon
• Date d'édition: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0714836583
• ISBN 13: 9780714836584
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 160
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible