Christian Boltanski at the Noguchi Museum, New York, NY, United States

Animitas, 5 May – 5 Sep 2021

Christian Boltanski at the Noguchi Museum

Christian Boltanski’s exhibition ‘Animitas’ has recently opened at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York. The artist’s famous outdoor sound installation is  part of an  elaborate series of works that Boltanski named after the small altars that can be found at the side of the road in Chile, for example, in memory of victims of accidents and in honour of saints, where they are called ‘animitas’ (‘small souls’). Made from countless Japanese bells it fills the museum’s garden with ‘music of lost souls’.

I've filled my whole life trying to preserve the memory of living, in the fight against dying. Perhaps the only thing I've done, since stopping death is impossible, is to show this fight. The fight itself does not satisfy us either.

- Christian Boltanski

Inside the museum, the video ‘Animitas. La Forêt des Murmures’ (2016) documents an earlier version of this work installed on the Japanese island of Teshima over a period from sunrise to sunset. 

Find out more on the Noguchi museum's website.

Christian Boltanski at the Noguchi Museum

Photos credits: Image 1: Christian Boltanski, Animitas, The Noguchi Museum, Photo © Ashley Cho. Artworks © Christian Boltanski and © INFGM / ARS. Image 2: Christian Boltanski, Animitas, La Forêt des Murmures, 2016, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Japan, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery © Christian Boltanski