RECONSTITUER
With a similar use of resources, but each in his own way, Marcel Cohen and Christophe Boltanski attempt to comprehend the concept of time, without resorting to the usual means used in fiction.
Facts, data, gestures and objects become accurate actors of a past story, which turns out to be just as much a story of the present.BIOGRAPHIES
Christophe Boltanski
Christophe Boltanski is journalist and writer. He was a war correspondent, particularly in the Middle East. Apart from writing numerous features for “Libération”, “Le Nouvel Observateur”, “Médiapart”, he is also the author of the essays, Les Sept vies de Yasser Arafat (The Seven Lives of Yasser Arafat), Grasset, 1997; Bethléem: 2000 ans de passion (Bethlehem: 2000 years of passion), with Farah Mébarki and Rémi Benali, Tallendier, 2000; Chirac d’Arabie: Les Mirages d’une politique française (Chirac of Arabia: The Illusions of French policy) with Eric Aeschimann, Grasset, 2006; Minerais de sang : Les esclaves du monde moderne (Ores of blood: The slaves of the modern world), Grasset, 2012. He is the author of a narrative La Cache (The hiding place), Stock, 2015, devoted to the story of his father’s family during the Second World War, a book for which he was awarded the Prix Femina, amongst others.
Marcel Cohen
After many visits abroad as a journalist, Marcel Cohen published several evocative and descriptive books: Galpa, Seuil, 1969, (republished by Editions Chandeigne,1993); Voyage à Waïzata (Journey to Waïtzata), EFR, 1976; Murs (Walls), EFR, 1979. He is also known for a book of interviews with the poet Edmond Jabès Du désert au livre (From desert to book), Belfond, 1981; as well as many texts and books with artists like Antonio Saura, Pierre Buraglio, Gérald Thupinier. Then in 1981, he published Miroirs (Mirrors) with Editions Gallimard; Je ne sais pas le nom (I don’t know the name), 1986; Le grand paon-de-nuit (The great night peacock), 1990; Assassinat d’un garde (The assassination of a guard), 1988; as well as the triology Faits, lecture courante à l’usage des grands débutants (Facts, current reading for the use of true beginners), 2002; 2007 and 2010; and Sur la scène intérieure (On the interior stage), 2013, a collection of works that established his reputation as a prose writer exploring, with restraint, worlds and space. He was awarded the Jean Arp Prize for French language Litterature.