Christian Boltanski

In the lack of material traces of his childhood, Christian Boltanski re-enacts and documents at the beginning of the seventies his early experiences such as sliding down a banister, eating a snack or returning from school. Each of these episodes is placed in time, although many of the activities shown must have been performed many times, if not regularly. Contrary to our expectations, the pictures display very little information about who Boltanski was in his youth and could in fact belong to anybody. Celebrating a birthday or playing a favourite game can be inscribed in an individual memory as a unique experience, but at the same time it is a commonplace event of nearly every childhood. In trying to recreate his childhood, Boltanski also created an album of an everyman. The album touches upon the difficult relationship between private and collective history.