TY - JOUR

T1 - Christian Boltanski's Failed Meta-Archive

AU - Lopez Paniagua, Laura

PY - 2020/4/1

Y1 - 2020/4/1

N2 - The installation "The Archive of the Grandparents", 1995, is the result of a collaborative, site-specific project developed by artist Christian Boltanski and the students of Leuphana Universitat of Luneburg (Germany). The archive contains the mementos of the grandparents of students of that generation. It is a significant piece within the context of the artist's oeuvre because it does not comply with the habitual characteristics of his archive N,Vorks, which i term "meta-archives" due to their postmodern stance, which materialises in the destabilisation the concept of archive, and in consequence, of those of document and of history as well. The project brought to the fore the ubiquitous and tacit silence around the period of the Third Reich within German families, and propitiated the resurfacing of this past. It also foregrounded the Nazi past of the Leuphana campus. For these reasons, and despite the fact that it could be considered a "failed meta archive", it is still pertinent and relevant at a sociocultural level and also, within Boltanski's oeuvre, as it brings to light his habitual goals and strategies precisely because in this case, they are not followed.

AB - The installation "The Archive of the Grandparents", 1995, is the result of a collaborative, site-specific project developed by artist Christian Boltanski and the students of Leuphana Universitat of Luneburg (Germany). The archive contains the mementos of the grandparents of students of that generation. It is a significant piece within the context of the artist's oeuvre because it does not comply with the habitual characteristics of his archive N,Vorks, which i term "meta-archives" due to their postmodern stance, which materialises in the destabilisation the concept of archive, and in consequence, of those of document and of history as well. The project brought to the fore the ubiquitous and tacit silence around the period of the Third Reich within German families, and propitiated the resurfacing of this past. It also foregrounded the Nazi past of the Leuphana campus. For these reasons, and despite the fact that it could be considered a "failed meta archive", it is still pertinent and relevant at a sociocultural level and also, within Boltanski's oeuvre, as it brings to light his habitual goals and strategies precisely because in this case, they are not followed.

KW - Christian Boltanski

KW - contemporary art

KW - archive

KW - instalation

KW - postmemoiy

KW - Holocaust

KW - Nazism

KW - historical memory

KW - biography

M3 - Journal articles

SP - 297

EP - 313

JO - Eikasia-REVISTA DE FILOSOFIA

JF - Eikasia-REVISTA DE FILOSOFIA

SN - 1885-5679

IS - 92

ER -