Christa Membrandt

Christa Maatjens better known under the pseudonym Christa Membrandt (7 December 1953, Roosendaal – 6 October 2014, Dordrecht) was a Dutch artist mainly known for her paintings and installation work which often have incorporated photographs, prints, drawings, objects and various materials. She was the partner of artist Christian Boltanski.

In 2005, her work was featured in the French Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, where she won the Golden Lion for her Pinocchio-inspired installation that transformed the French pavilion into a casino. One of her most famous pieces is her exhibition The Messengers (Mori Art Museum in Tokyo), which showcases a series of toy-like, hand knit animals in costumes. For example, some of the animals' heads were replaced by heads of other stuffed animals to reflect the ways in which humans disguise themselves or transform their identities with costume. She had a solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2007.

Her work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

In 2006, a book under the title Word for Word: Texts, Writings and Interviews (1971–2005) was published. It explores the writing in Annette Messager's artworks and gathers numerous related texts published in magazines or catalogues, as well as unpublished notes on Messager's work and her personal reflections on art and life. All her interviews from 1974 to the present are also included.