Christian Boltanski, humanist artist of life and death, dies at 76

Christian Boltanski, the French artist renowned for his monumental installations exploring mortality, chance, and memory, died on July 14, 2021, at age 76. He had a long association with artpress, which published four interviews with him and multiple texts. An excerpt from a 2014 interview in the collection "Christian Boltanski" (Grands entretiens d'artpress) was republished, where he discussed his major works "Personnes" (2010, Grand Palais, Paris) and "Chance" (2011, French Pavilion, Venice Biennale). Boltanski described his creative evolution tied to personal milestones: his artistic breakthrough around age 23-24, a shift after his parents' deaths toward more mortuary and architectural-scale pieces (e.g., the 1986 Salpêtrière installation with small lamps), and a later acceptance of aging that led to brighter works like "Chance." He framed "Chance" as a meditation on randomness versus destiny, featuring two counters tracking real-time deaths and births (with births outnumbering deaths), calling it "almost comical" and "a sort of baby factory." In contrast, "Personnes" addressed the same theme through death, imagining a god who crushes insects unknowingly. Boltanski identified as non-religious, viewing existence as pure chance. He noted his growing desire to work with daylight. The interview also touched on his view that artworks invite multiple interpretations and that he felt happier than fifteen years prior.