We nearly missed one of David Walsh’s King
Hits at MONA in Hobart. The standalone gallery featuring the French artist ChristianBoltanski is next to the wharf where the ferry ties up and most people (well
everyone really) heads past it and straight up the 90 stairs to the museum
entrance. Then as they queue up at the top of those stairs to leave, everyone
tends to hustle past again so as to get a good seat for the ride back to the
city.
If you do stop and go inside you see a bank
of monitors that screen video of Boltanski’s studio in real-time as well as
highlights from previous days. As his studio is in Europe we don't reckon many
MONA visitors catch Boltanski in real time but the feed is part of a
bet-cum-purchase he has with Walsh. Walsh is a committed gambler (that’s where
the money for the museum and its collection has come from) and in his purchase
of The life of C.B he is making
another call.
In Boltanski’s words, “We decided to work on the basis of this
old tradition of a lifetime annuity. To buy en
viager in France is a transaction by which you pay someone fixed
instalments until their death, at which time the payments stop and you inherit
the property. David gives me a bit of money each month. In eight years time he
will have paid me the agreed amount. If I die in five years time, he gets a
good deal.”
So, the longer Boltanski lives, the more Walsh will have to pay.
Boltanski is 68 and has refused to sell Walsh his ashes.
Image: DVD records of the days already
videoed with slots good for another nine years worth of recordings line the
‘Boltanski room’.
