PRESENTATION: Christian Boltanski, Départ–Arrivée

Since his very first exhibition at a Parisian cinema, Le Ranelagh in 1968, Christian Boltanski has been scrutinizing human life and that which remains after death. Using an inventory process, through either photograph albums, registers or accumulations of objects, Christian Boltanski entrusts the memory of human existence to a simple enumeration. He accentuates our daily gestures in the form of ‘little stories’; those actions which define ordinary life and contribute to the shaping of a shared memory.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Marian Goodman Archive

The exhibition “Départ – Arrivée” feature recent sculptural works and video installations by Christian Boltanski that have never been presented before in the U.S., as well as a selection of historical pieces from the 1980s. Mostly conceived by Boltanski himself before his passing in July 14/7/2021, the show is an homage to his life and work, offering a lens into the/ metaphysical preoccupations that drove his artistic practice for over fifty years. The exhibition reflects Boltanski’s ability to suggest the passage of time and the precariousness of our existence as well as his powerful skill as a universal storyteller. Bringing together works from two different time periods, the exhibition demonstrates how the artist, throughout the years, had become more and more interested in creating parabolas beyond the materiality of his works. In the North Gallery of Galerie Marian Goodman, the word “Départ” in red lightbulbs greets the visitor and marks the debut of a journey through the exhibition towards “Arrivée” in blue located on the third floor. Presented for the first time at Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris in 2015, the diptych “Départ – Arrivée” (2015), echoes the voyage of life and has since become  an iconic piece, included in his important retrospectives in South Korea, France, Japan, and Israel. From the early 2000s to 2021, Boltanski increasingly turned to video, creating more than a dozen video installations including the series “Animitas”, initiated in 2014 in the Atacama Desert in Chile and “re-played” in other parts of the world (Canada, Japan, and Israel.)  At each site, a sculptural work made up of several hundreds of small Japanese bells mapped the exact configuration of the sky on 6/9/ 1944, Boltanski’s date of birth. Stirred by the wind, the bells resound like soft chimes as a tribute to drifting souls. Meant to be ephemeral, at each of Boltanski’s four site-specific installations, the work is solely comprised of a long sequence shot from sunrise to sunset, enabling the artist to tell the story of its impermanent existence. For Boltanski, like the second-hand clothes or the found photographs used in his past works, “the films will serve as a reminder when nothing else remains”. In the North Gallery, “Animitas (Mères Mortes)” (2017) momentarily brings us to the shores of the Dead Sea in Israel. The installation combines a video projection and a bed of gravelly sand to convey the continuation of the quiet desert landscape, inviting visitors to enter a meditative state. In the adjacent viewing room, “Crépuscule” (2015), composed of 99 light bulbs, is viewable from its threshold. The floor piece functions as a countdown for the days of the show, fading away at the rhythm of three light bulbs each day. The room, bright and dazzling on the first day of the show, gradually becomes dark, resulting in the complete extinction of light. In the South Gallery, the immersive video installation “Subliminal” (2020), is one of the last artworks created by the artist. The installation spreads over four large projections on which “cliché videos of a fabricated vision of happiness hide subliminal images of the horrors that took place in the century I was born into and that unfolded in parallel to part of my life,” explained the artist. The blue letters of “Arrivée” indicate a new beginning as the exhibition continues onto the third floor with a selection of seminal works from the 1980s, including “Réserve La Fête de Pourim” (1987), “Lycée Chases” (1987) and two works from the “Monument” series. The mid-1980s was a turning point in Boltanski’s in which he developed the themes for which he is best known: the evocation of memory and loss, life and death. The exhibition space becomes a theater in which visitors are placed in direct state of emotion. The aesthetics of this earlier decade of work is characterized by the materials employed by Boltanski (rusty biscuit tin boxes, black and white photographs paired with lightbulbs or small black lamps) as well as by atmosphere of darkness and shadows. Without referring to any specific religion, the works are reminiscent of altars and funerary monuments. The photographic portraits of children or teenagers are usually taken from group pictures such as Boltanski’s own school photo from 1951. Lycée Chases dates back from 1987 and includes a found group photograph of the Jewish Chases High School in Vienna from 1931.

Photo: Christian Boltanski, Départ – Arrivée, 2015, 2 pieces; 86 red light bulbs, 99 blue light bulbs, electric wire, 126 × 122 × 4 in, 320 × 309.9 × 10.2 cm, Edition of 3, Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery

Info: Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th St, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 13/9-15/10/2022, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.mariangoodman.com/