Christian Boltanski at Magasin 3

22 August 2008

Christian Boltanski
5 September - 14 December 2008
Curator: Tessa Praun

On 5 September Magasin 3 will open a solo exhibition with the acclaimed French artist Christian Boltanski. Tessa Praun, curator of the exhibition, tells us that "Experiences of loss and the need to put a face to anonymous suffering forms the thread that runs through Boltanski’s body of work. Our individual and collective memories are central to works that often bears the traces of human life – clothes, photos, letters and other personal material." In his new work, Boltanski is more interested in living material and like an archivist or ethnographer he collects proof of the fragility of the human condition.

Christian Boltanski was born in Paris, France, in 1944. His first solo exhibition entitled 'La vie impossible de Christian Boltanski' took place in 1968 at the Cinéma le Ranelagh in Paris. As a video artist, and as a conceptual artist he has had a prolific career exhibiting in solo and group shows at prominent art institutions and his works have been included in the Documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale several times. His most recent retrospectives took place at PAC – Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano in 2005 and at Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt in 2006-2007. In addition Boltanski has worked extensively with theatre projects for Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris; the Ruhr Triennale in Germany, and many more.

Events:

8 October 2008 – Public evening (5-9 pm)
Lectures by Cecilia Linde, Hjärtkliniken at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset and Sue Breakell, Head of Archives, Tate Research, London.
6pm "A heart-specialist's view on heartbeats"
Cecilia Linde, professor and senior physician at 'Hjärtkliniken' Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, talks about our physiological and cultural knowledge of the heart in relation to her expert experiences.

7pm "Something of our own selves": talking archives by Sue Breakell, archivist, Tate, London. Taking as its starting point Boltanski's use of archival forms and practices, this talk will offer an archivist's perspective on the nature and meaning of archives in contemporary culture. It will consider the generative possibilities of the use of archives in art practice, and the particular ways in which such traces speak to the individual experience of the viewer through a kind of "microhistory".

4 September 2008 – Artist talk with Christian Boltanski
Duration: 40.40 min. Language: English.
A conversation between Christian Boltanski and Tessa Praun, curator of the exhibition.

Guided Tours
14 September
2pm Special tour by Tessa Praun, curator of the exhibition.

23 October
5.30pm Guide: Nina Blom Bussoli. After the tour an interview with the artist by Melvyn Bragg is screened in the lobby. The film is screened in the reference library during the entire exhibition period. Also available at http://www.ubu.com/film/boltanski.html.

Every Saturday at 2pm the current exhibitions are presented by Magasin 3 guides Erik Sigerud, Nina Blom Bussoli and Anna-Stina Ulfström.

Read more:
Proventus' engagement in Magasin 3
Christian Boltanski at Magasin 3
Other exhibitions at Magasin 3
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