Lifetime, Christian Boltanski : The National Art Center of Tokyo

Lifetime

This exhibition is among the largest retrospectives ever held in Japan of the work of Christian Boltanski, one of the most prominent contemporary artists, and encompasses work from throughout his career. After making short films in the late 1960s, Boltanski worked extensively with photography in the 1970s, gaining attention for works dealing with his own memories and those of others. In the 1980s, Boltanski began producing installations utilizing light and exploring religious themes, for which he earned international acclaim. Since then, he has continued producing and exhibiting works worldwide with the themes of history, memory, and the vestiges of human existence. While looking back at a variety of his efforts over the past 50 years, this retrospective was designed by Boltanski, who has described himself as “a spatial artist,” as an installation for this specific venue.