/ UNTREF’S STATEMENT /

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ARGENTINA, A MULTI-VENUE EXHIBITION OF SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATIONS AND PROJECTS BY MODERN FRENCH ARTIST CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI

Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) is proud to announce Project , a four-venue exhibition comprised of several installations, including two site-specific pieces produced especially for this occasion. Christian Boltanski is one of the most outstanding artists in the current international art scene, and his aesthetic pursuits are tightly connected with the historical and cultural background of our country. The Project’s opening date was October 12 at 12.00 p.m., at Museo Hotel de los Inmigrantes (the Immigrants Hotel, now a Museum).

Project started over two years ago and has involved the joint efforts of the artist, the curator and the production department of UNTREF and MUNTREF (the University’s Museum). The exhibition opened simultaneously in three venues, which showcase several Boltanski installations, two of which are site-specific and exclusively created for this project.

We have worked on this exhibition based on the conviction that art is extremely effective as a facilitator of visibility. Along these lines, and in the words of UNTREF Dean Aníbal Jozami, Boltanski’s exploration of memory, the value of life and the human dimension is truly invaluable.

The artist’s installations can be visited FROM OCTOBER 12 THROUGH DECEMBER 16, during the opening hours of each building. Entrance is free of charge.

OBJECTIVE

UNTREF has been conducting Project since 2010. Through it, the University’s goal is to continue to engage in research in the fields of art and culture, to strengthen its networking efforts and those of UNTREF Museum, and to contribute to the inclusion of Buenos Aires in international art and culture circles.

¿Why Boltanski?

Christian Boltanski is a beacon artist in the international scene, and stands out for an aesthetic approach that is tightly linked with the cultural and historical background of Argentina.

Christian Boltanski was born in Paris on September 6, 1944. He is a self-taught artist who became involved with art at the early age of 14. As the son of a Christian mother and a Jewish father, Boltanski bears the traces of the Holocaust in his memory. This appalling event of human history has been a part of his identity-related work, and of the singular tension between life and death of his pieces, where this dichotomy is reflected both in the autobiographic and in the sum of other people’s little individual stories. Memory and archive are two of the distinguishing traits of his work.

Boltanski has used the memory and archive principle of life and art to intervene the French cultural scene first, the European and North-American scene later, and new geographic frontiers in recent years.

Some of his most recent interventions include his exhibition at Monumenta 2010, held at the Grand Palais, and at the French Pavillion in the 2011 Venice Biennale.
Boltanski is currently preparing a site-specific project for Portugal, in addition to Project , which includes two site specific, interventions: the Archives de Coeur installation at Tecnópolis and several video-installations at MUNTREF.