I like looking at the finger of God. Why it takes one and not another, why this one or that one, why now or why then. The finger of God is always on us. When you get older and you see your friends dying around you, you say "Why not me?" That machine is always there.
Christian BoltanskiThe photo replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can't visualize them anymore, you only remember them through their pictures.
Christian BoltanskiIt's pretentious to say, but my art is like a little Zen story, a story with a question mark at the end. People can take from it what they need. If somebody says, "Your art is very funny," I say, "You are totally right." If somebody says, "Your art is very sad," I say, "You are totally right." In Japan they say, "Your art is very Japanese, you even look Japanese.Your great-grandfather was most surely a Japanese man." And I say, "You are totally right."
Christian BoltanskiWe all die twice - once when we actually die and once when no one on earth recognizes our photograph.
Christian Boltanski