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Boltanski, contemporary Baroque

The monumental 2010 edition of the Grand Palais

"It is still possible to write poetry after the Holocaust? '. The question was agitated by the German philosopher Theodor Adorno in the postwar period. You can still, after massacres made in the name of rational models of perfection, with the aesthetics foreshadow the existence of a perfect world? The work of Christian Boltanski, French artist race of mother and father Polish jew, everything revolves around this question. Which paradigm can be proposed in the image of the future when, at most of its technical capacity, humanity has produced the worst abyss? As evidenced by the latest creation by the French - the huge installation that will remain until Feb. 21 at the Grand Palais in Paris - the answer lies in the very essence of the contemporary in art, that is, that is not intended to provide answers but to question, to challenge any unrealistic horizon of meaning, emphasizing the undeniable truth of every human being.
The exercise performed by the Grand Boltanski Palais is exemplary, destined to be one of the greatest episodes of the new century. Beneath the giant dome of iron and steel built in Art Nouveau style for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, the artist lying on the ground thousands of used clothes and board, illuminating the cold light of neon. At the center of the nave, high crane grabs, lifts and drops the last rags of a mountain, the roar of heartbeats recorded suggest that the hammering of the workshop. Goal, of course, demystify engineering magnificence of the Grand Palais, suggest the gap between human life, its organic nature and the killing power of the machines, the ruthless anti-humanism civilization of the art, the countless lives mortified on his behalf; emphasize the historical filiation between Art Nouveau, the search for truth in the positive sciences and the development of genetic engineering and theories of race. Leaving aside the size storicocritica installation, then, requires the commotion in front of the little that remains of lives gone and swallowed up by time. Clothing often made in series, otherwise deformed from the bodies have disappeared. Stains, stitching, wrist and elbows worn by Personnes (the title of the work) that, after recent intense lives, there are already over and we do not remember.