Attempt at Recreation (Three Drawers) 1971

Christian Boltanski made this work with metal and paper labels. The piece evokes ideas about memory, loss, and the institutional archiving of identity. Looking at this sculpture, made in France in the late 20th century, we should consider the effect of World War II and the Holocaust on artists of Boltanski’s generation. The Holocaust was a seismic event for social institutions, bringing into question the ways in which records are kept, and identities are managed and controlled by the state. Boltanski seems to be addressing our deeply troubled relationship with bureaucracy and the function of social institutions, in the wake of the Nazi era. Through this anonymous filing cabinet and its cryptic labels, Boltanski is making a wider point about the public role of art as a witness. He asks us to consider how we confront the recent past and the politics of memory. We can research the artist’s biography, archival documents relating to wartime France and museological responses to the Holocaust to deepen our understanding of this artwork.