Since the publication of Pierre Nora's The Sites of Memory in the 1980s, scholars have critiqued the traditional notions of the museum as a reservoir of cultural memory and a representation of national identity. However, a young French artist, Christian Boltanski, began examining these aspects of museums before they were formulated in cultural criticism. A historical study of his work opens up new perspectives on issues of museums and cultural memory that have so recently interested cultural critics.

In May 1968, Boltanski started to exhibit personal memorabilia in museums to highlight the museum's exclusion of such subject matter. In response, numerous critics declared that whereas the museum had traditionally functioned as a representation of collective history, which had for many excluded personal experience, Boltanski's exhibitions of personal memorabilia and photographs provided new sites of identification. My paper analyzes the works historically in light these claims, by examining what has been often repeated but never systematically explored: that Boltanski's exhibitions allowed viewers to respond collectively while seeing their private memories in the work, thereby creating new kinds of cultural identification.

While critics saw in Boltanski's work a universally accessible evocation of everyday memories, I argue that his work suggested a more critical view of the sites of cultural memory. For example, Boltanski presented childhood souvenirs as archives with factual labels and dates, illustrating both the ways museums traditionally preserved cultural history and the impossibility of preserving personal memories within these frameworks. By examining specific exhibitions, including the immense Expo '72 in Paris, I explore the tension between the critique of cultural memory suggested by Boltanski's artwork and power to trigger personal memory that was claimed for it.