Christian Boltanski and the memory of objects

Abstract

The objects go through different phases: use, discard and in fewer cases they become art objects. The reuse of these found objects made by the artist Christian Boltanski is a symptom of his fight against death by means of memory. He thinks although people disappear, a part of them is kept latent in their belongings. In his installations he works with this topic by giving a second life to things, either photographs from event magazines, archives or as in the most remarkable work, with clothes as a presence of the absent body. This artist reminds us of the people missing, those that books don’t talk about and which are called “small memories.” These signs are so common that create in us more empathy towards these stories.