Reserve of Dead Swiss

Christian Boltanski’s haunting installations speak to human presence and absence. This work acts as a memento mori, or remembrance of death, that grapples with the trauma of the Holocaust. The biscuit tins refer to the traditional practice of using the containers to store family documents, while their shape resembles coffins or columbaria—structures used for storing the cremated remains of the deceased. The fabric heaped on top of the tins suggests piles of clothing left by the departed, and the desk lamp evokes several possible meanings—from a memorial candle to an interrogation lamp. The photographs on each tin came from obituaries in a Swiss newspaper.

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