Often comprised of fragile materials and objects already old and damaged, Christian Boltanski’s artwork immediately poses the question of its preservation. Regarding this, the artist is very clear: "Today, for the most part what I do is short-lived. The object itself no longer is important. Contemporary art museums could just as well keep nothing but the layout plans. Why transport and preserve certain pieces? Why pay astronomical insurance for biscuit tins, arriving wrapped up in tissue paper? Why make warehouse men put on gloves when I could care less about these biscuit tins? I don’t even have a personal link with them anymore: at the beginning I pissed on them to rust them, but anyone could rust them for me."

Christian Boltanski. Autel Chases, 1988. 112 biscuit tins, 15 lamps and 15 black and white photographs, 230x400 com. Each photograph: 30x24 cm. Each tin: 23x23x13 cm. Inventory 89068, FNAC. All rights reserved.

This dematerialized art, or art which, in any event, is stripped of any fascination for the object, is one conceived as a sharing: everyone is free to interpret the piece on the basis of the artist’s instructions alone. The actual objects comprising it are secondary. For the artist, it is not a matter of leaving everlasting art works, objects that will stand up to time, which would then be in contradiction with the very meaning of his work; to the contrary, it is a question of constituting a kind of repertory on which one can draw in the future to create a piece which would have the following title, in the words of the artist: "Artwork by Christian Boltanski, Played by Such-and-Such".