27 Jul 2017

Christian Boltanski: Anime. Di luogo in luogo

Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna

Reviewed by Vera Wilde

Darkness and a heartbeat enfold. A bare bulb pulses, not illuminating pictures tiling four walls. They glitter, black mirrors of darkness.

In the many-roomed exhibit beyond, grainy black-and-white photos invoke Holocaust-era children, families, and the faces of ghosts. Some float, hanging on huge linen sheets that feel rougher than they look, like skins on the starving.

A wall-sized film projection of tinkling bells shaped like toy flowers dominates a large side-room. The bells complement a sweet-smelling hay floor, reminiscent of killing fields but with sound commemorating decay too distant to stink. In a smaller side-room, carts full of clean, quality clothing suggest massive loss amid order.

In the middle of the spacious central room gleams an enormous pile of gold shit: trauma changes veneer, not essence, with time. The heartbeat that saw you in, sees you out, an ode to continuing life.