Christian Boltanski in 2003: “I didn’t go out alone on the street until I was 18”
Interview In 2003, the visual artist Christian Boltanski (who died in 2021) returned, in an interview granted to Claude Weill for "le Nouvel Obs", to the roots of his artistic creation, drawing on the wounds of a childhood lived in claustrophobia and the anxiety of the family home.
Interview by Claude Weill
Christian Boltanski in New York. ISACK SASHA/SIPA
To go further
Obsessed with the past, and with the vanity of wanting to preserve it, Christian Boltanski, currently present at the Lyon Biennale, continues to explore the traces of our humanity. For the first time, the artist tells Claude Weill what he owes to the wounds of his childhood.
For thirty-five years, Christian Boltanski has been tracing a unique path in contemporary art. With tremendous formal freedom, using photography, sculpture, installation, and books in turn, he has created a black and white universe where human tragicomedy can be seen and reflected upon...
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