Boltanski- Existing Works

(Christian Boltanski, Autel de Lycée Chases, 1986–87. "Altar to the Chases High School". Six photographs, six desk lamps, and twenty-two tin boxes, 170.2 x 214.6 x 24.1 cm.)

The power of photography to recall the past has inspired many contemporary artists to use photographs to revisit the experience of historical events. In so doing, artists reconsider the photograph itself as an object imbued with history. They became aware that using the medium of photography would lend the elements of specificity and truth to their work.

In Boltanski’s 1986–87 work Autel de Lycée Chases (which means “Altar to the Chases High School”) enlarged photographs of children are hung over a platform constructed from stacked tin biscuit boxes, which are rusted as if they have been ravaged by time. The black-and-white photographs look like artifacts from another era. An electric light illuminates each face while at the same time obscuring it. The arrangement gives no way to identify or connect the unnamed individuals.
The photos used in Autel de Lycée Chases were taken from a real-world source, the school photograph of the graduating class of 1931 from a Viennese high school for Jewish students. These students were coming of age in a world dominated by war and persecution, and it is likely that many perished over the next decade. [1]

Above is "Les archives de C.B." an installation piece I have had the pleasure of seeing for myself in Centre Pompidou, Paris. The first comment I could make was simply about how overwhelming it was; it stands at 2.7m high x 6.9m wide. It is made from 646 metal biscuit tins, with varying levels of rust and use and lit by black desktop lamps.

The impression is that the whole piece was erected in a rush. The implication is that this is a makeshift archive, thrown together to rescue things otherwise doomed to oblivion.
These tins contain more than 1,200 photos and 800 documents that Boltanski gathered when he cleared his atelier. These tins, in other words, contain records from his entire life as an artist, shielded from view. They are only present in his memory and privacy. [2]