Artist Agrees to Be Filmed 24/7 for the Rest of His Life

French artist's life now canvas for Australian millionaire

A MILLIONAIRE art buyer has made what must be the ultimate purchase - an artist's entire life until he dies.
French artist Christian Boltanski has agreed to have his every move filmed 24 hours a day in his Paris studio and streamed live to Tasmanian David Walsh's $70 million Museum of Old and New Art when it opens in 2011.

Photographer, sculptor and installation artist Boltanski has said the deal with the Moorilla winery, brewery and restaurant owner gives him an ongoing fee until he dies.

The 65-year-old artist told the French press agency AFP recently: "This man (Walsh) thinks he can beat the odds and he says he never loses. Anyone who never loses or thinks he never loses must be the devil."

The deal means that the longer Boltanski lives, the more the quirky artwork will cost Walsh. "If I die in three years, he wins. If I die in 10 years, he loses," Boltanski said.
Tasmanians will get a taste of Boltanski's work in Hobart during this month's MONA Festival of Music and Art, which is the brainchild of Mr Walsh.

Boltanski, who has exhibited around the world, is collecting sound recordings of human heartbeats for an archive on a remote Japanese island.

From January 14 people in Hobart will have the chance to add their own heartbeat to the artwork, Les Archives Du Coeur or Archives of the Heart, at a makeshift clinic.

Boltanski has been collecting heartbeats since 2008 in Stockholm, Paris and Berlin.

MONA FOMA's art curator Nicole Durling said the experience would demystify art, showing regular people that they too could be part of it.