PRESENTATION: Christian Boltanski-4.4

Christian Boltanski is a leading figure in contemporary art, considered as France’s most influential living artist. Since 1967, he has developed an artistic style that embraces writing, film, sculpture and photography. With a focus on remembrance and time, he works with biographical milestones and references, from both his own life and the lives of unknown or unidentified persons, and combines true and fictional tales in an attempt at “reconstitution”.

By: Efi Michalarou
Photo: Busan Museum of Art Archive

As the third exhibition of the series “Lee Ufan and His Friends”, the Busan Museum of Art at Space Lee Ufan hosts “Christian Boltanski: 4.4” This is the artist’s largest retrospective held in Korea since a 1997 solo exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, as well as his first posthumous exhibition. In the title of the exhibition the nymbers “4.4”, refers to 1944, the year Christian Boltanski was born. The artist once said that it is interesting that the number 4 symbolizes death in Korea since its pronunciation “sa (사, 死)” is identical to that of a Chinese character meaning death (“sa”: 사, 死). During the preparation of the exhibition, the artist was aware that he did not have many remaining days to live. He deliberately chose this title, because he thought that this moment to him was like “the last stage of life” if life is divided into 4 stages. In addition, the period after the number “4” is also a signifier symbolizing the end of the artist’s life. This exhibition consists of a total of 43 pieces ranging from Boltanski’s earliest to his most recent works. Before passing away on July 14 this year, he took care of everything from selecting the works to editing and updating them and designing the exhibition space. The exhibition is on the third floor of the main exhibition hall and the ground floor of Space Lee Ufan, where visitors are greeted by the Korean typography of “출발 (Départ/Departure)” and “도착 (Arrivée/Arrival)” and French one “Après” designed by the artist himself. These are not words to delimit the sections of the exhibition, but rather guideposts to “life and death” questions about which the artist throughout his lifetime has always posed to viewers. The artist is usually known as “an artist of Shoah” (השואה, literally ‘catastrophe’ in Hebrew, referring to the Holocaust that unfolded during the Second World War). Nevertheless, he reminds us of the implicit messages inside the works—about presence and absence, life and death, memory and oblivion. Even though death as an artistic theme is always uncomfortable to face, the artist ceaselessly sought after that uncomfortable truth. In the East, death is accepted as part of life, whereas in Western society since capitalism, there has been complete in denial of it. Now, referring to Covid-19, the artist said that “because of this disease, death is being discussed again as something omnipresent surrounding us.” Until the end of his own life, the artist devoted his entire remaining life to this exhibition. This exhibition, poses questions of “life and death”, the theme he has been exploring throughout his life. As the title “4.4” suggests, in the awareness that this would be his last exhibition while he was still alive, the artist, through his works at the exhibition, poses questions of “death”, the theme he has been exploring throughout his life.

Photo: Christian Boltanski, 출발(Départ), 2021, light bulbs, 130x220cm, Exhibition view Busan Museum of Art-Busan, 2021, Courtesy Busan Museum of Art

Info: Busan Museum of Art, Space Lee Ufan, 58, APEC-ro, Haeundae-gu Busan, Republic of Korea, Duration: 15/10/2021-27/3/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Sat 10:00-18:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-21:00, https://art.busan.go.kr