"I decided to get involved in the project that has been important to me for a long time : to preserve everything, to keep a record of all the moments of our life, of all the objects that have rubbed shoulders with us, of all that we have said and what has been said around us, here is my goal."

Thirty-five years have passed since Christian Boltanski's first exhibition at the Center Pompidou. Conceived by Boltanski himself as a wandering in the heart of his work, this new exhibition is less a retrospective than a sequence of moments marking the stages and metamorphoses of his remarks.

Throughout the Catalog, the reader returns to the beginnings of the artist's life, learning his first abortive love for cinema, his passion for theater, and his frenetic practice of painting. His work, nourished by life, death, hardships and mourning, is approached from an unprecedented sociological angle, completing this discussion as an exclusive and sincere dive into the heart of the artist.

Through an exhaustive selection of the artist's works, the Catalog puts words and images into perspective. Like a diary, personal and anonymous photographs, paintings, installations support the dialogue of Christian Boltanski and Bernard Blistène.

Commissioner: Mnam/Cci, Bernard Blistène