| Vanished bodies and eternal presence |
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"My grandmother was remarkable, like all grandmothers are. Nothing remains of her except for a few pictures in my brothers’ heads and mine. Nevertheless, one tells oneself that things go on, it's the only reason for living." In a few words, Christian Boltanski sums up his work's guiding principle: an impossible wager, to win against oblivion and disappearance. The human body is at the centre of this undertaking. It is the first thing to go, to decompose. After that, little remains, only rags and tatters of memory. There is nothing physical left, the body has vanished, and nevertheless something is there, an eternal presence. This hiatus is at the crux of numerous religious questions as to the meaning behind the worship of the dead, reincarnation, the afterlife and resurrection. Christian Boltanski indirectly questions these notions, but by dealing with them over here, measured in the terms of our time on earth. The paradox of time and eternity in the artist’s work touches on that which makes our condition as individuals incarnate, destined to return to dust – yet still apt to hope. Read on: 
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