Boltanski Break

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Fashion weeks can be dehumanising affairs during which nothing has a proper meaning anymore, not even apocalypse or death.

Everything seems to be replaced by the repetitive acts of watching piles of clothes and accessories showcased by more or less bored models sashaying down various runways, dodging or deriving pleasures from style photographers and bloggers taking your picture/scouting the streets in search of the latest trends and generally hating celebrities for having too much money, but very little style and even less brain.

So, if you happen to be in Milan and feel tired about the fashion circus surrounding you, head to the HangarBicocca (Via Chiese 2) to take part in the final act of Christian Boltanski’s exhibition Personnes.

Born in 1944 in Paris, Boltanski is undoubtedly one of the most interesting French artists on the scene, famous for symbolising through his iconic piles and fields of old clothes both death and life.

Discarded clothes - and, if you lost someone dear to you and had to go through their clothes, you probably experienced this in the first place - make us think about the shortness of life, but they also connect us with life since they preserve the shapes of our bodies once we remove them.

Highlighting the absence, Boltanski’s installations are pessimistic, yet his piles of coats, sweaters, skirts and trousers put together with the passion and attention of a rag-picker, are also meant to preserve the essence, the souls of the human beings who wore them and who have turned into anonymous ghosts.

The final act of the Boltanski installation in Milan will focus on the dispersion of his work. Tomorrow and on Sunday, visitors will indeed be allowed to buy paper bags and fill them with as many clothes as they want from the installation, until the latter will completely disappear.

Boltanski hopes that in this way the memory of the person who wore that specific garment will be preserved throughout time.

Interestingly enough, since the event is taking place during the local fashion week, Boltanski’s clothes could be considered also from a fashion point of view, indicating how something that was once fashionable and coveted has turned into a shapeless mountain of rags.

People visiting the Boltanski installation will also be able to see other works of art currently exhibited at the HangarBicocca by artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Fausto Melotti and Stefano Boccalini.

All images courtesy of Fondazione HangarBicocca. Copyright Agostino Osio.

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