Artist talk: Christian Boltanski

2 July 2015, Thursday, 6 p.m.
Admission: free

Cricoteka invites you for a meeting with Christian Boltanskim. The event is a part of program accompanying the exhibition “In the Blink of an Eye”.
The meeting will be led by Joanna Zielińska.

Christian Boltanski was born in France in 1944 and lives in Paris. He had no artistic edu-cation; he started to paint in 1958. He first came to the attention of critics in 1968, with a screening of some short films and the publication of his sketch books. Both the films and the sketch books explored his profound reflections on human existence, which were to become the leitmotif of his art. In the 1970s, Boltanski began to experiment with clay, sugar and gauze. He also embarked on photography, a medium that he employs in a similar manner to painting. He made collages, combining elements of still life with vignettes of everyday trivia. The works represented collective perceptions of contemporary civilisation. He went on to use ready–mades and small, colourful figurines cut out of cardboard, subsequently photographed to create large format images resulting in theatrical compositions. He also made kinetic installations. In his work The Shadows (1984), he lit figurative forms with strong light, the resulting forms creating a mystical landscape. He ventured into light installations, based on historic photographs, to reconstruct events from the past. In the exhibition Personnes during Monumenta (Grand Palais, Paris) in 2010, he filled the space with piles of clothes. In his works, objects tell the story of human suffering. His large-scale installation Chance was presented at French Pavilion during 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2011. The installation was chance, luck and misfortune. Christian Boltanski has participated in more than 150 exhibitions all over the world. Several times, he presented his works in Poland at Foksal Gallery in Warsaw and Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw among others.