Grand Palais: the Art. Monumenta 2010 – Christian Boltanski’s Personnes. Monumenta is an outstanding, ambitious artistic encounter. Each year a leading international contemporary artist is invited to create an exceptional new work of the gigantic nave of the Grand Palais. This year French artist, Christian Boltanski creates a rich, intense commemorative space, in sound and vision. Personnes (literally both "people" and "nobodies"), until 21 February, 2010, is the evocative title of this social, religious and humanistic exploration of life, memory and the irreducible individuality of each and every human existence – together with the presence of death, the dehumanization of the body, chance and destiny.
A detail. Conceived as a work in sound and vision, Personnes takes up a new theme in Boltanski's work, building on his earlier explorations of the limits of human existence and the vital dimension of memory: the question of fate, and the ineluctability of death. Personnes transforms the entire nave of the Grand Palais through the creation of a coherent, intensely moving installation conceived as a gigantic animated tableau. Personnes is a one-off, ephemeral work. In accordance with the artist's wishes, the components of the piece will all be recycled at the end of the exhibition.