17 Quotes by Christian Boltanski

Art-making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt

We all die twice – once when we actually die and once when no one on earth recognizes our photograph.

Art-making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt.

We’re painting the same people all our life – it’s just the way we look at them that changes. If you experience trauma, you can speak about it in so many different ways. You can speak about landscape, you can speak about your food; it’s always different. Trauma is the beginning of life as an artist.

When I was four or five years old, I heard a lot of stories about the Holocaust because both my parents were survivors. I’m sure that was very important in my life. My father snuck out from under the floorboards to make love to my mother. I can’t imagine why they kept me.

I think that all human activity is stupid. Artistic activity is also stupid, but you can see it more clearly.

I’ve filled my whole life trying to preserve the memory of living, in the fight against dying. Perhaps the only thing I’ve done, since stopping death is impossible, is to show this fight. The fight itself does not satisfy us either.

The photo replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can’t visualize them anymore, you only remember them through their pictures.

Photography is used to give evidence, and the evidence is always deceiving.