Born in Paris in 1944, died in Paris in 2021.

As an initiator of alongside agnès b. and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Christian Boltanski has been invited to produce the 50th issue.

«Personnes», the installation conceived for «Monumenta 2010» at Paris’s Grand Palais, is a work combining both sound and vision which speaks to everyone, leading them to question and reflect on life, memory and the inescapable uniqueness of each existence; but also to reflect on death and the dehumanisation of the body, to contemplate the notions of chance and destiny. The work was also exhibited at the Park Avenue Armory in New York in May 2010, under the title «No Man’s Land», and at the Hangar Bicocca in Milan between June and September 2010. In Milan, the installation was subjected to «dispersal» during the weekend of 25 and 26 September 2010: the public was invited to dismantle it and take the pieces away. We know that the concept of «dispersal» is dear to Christian Boltanski, and it is not insignificant that we find it at the very heart of his definition of and of its aspirations.

As an extension to his installation, Christian Boltanski has realised this 50th issue with photographs by Didier Plowy taken at the Grand Palais in February 2010.