Born in 1953 in Paris, France
Lives and works in Malakoff, France

Sophie CALLE

Sophie Calle is a French artist who has exhibited extensively throughout the world since the late 1970s. Variously described as a conceptual artist, a photographer, a movie director, and even a detective, she has developed a practice that is instantly recognizable for its distinct narrative elements and frequent combination of images with text. Each of her projects can be seen as a chapter in a vast overall volume of references and echoes, in which Calle often blurs the boundaries between the intimate and the public, reality and fiction, art and life. Her work methodically orchestrates an unveiling of reality—her own and that of others—while allocating a controlled part of this reality to chance.

solo shows

2020
- Prenez soin de vous, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- Was Bleibt, Kunstmuseum, Ravensburg, Germany
- Because, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, USA

2019
- Regard incertain, Kunstmuseum, Thun, Switzerland
- Un certain regard, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland
- Cinq, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Musée Borély, Musée Grobet Labadie, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Chapelle De La Vieille Charité, Marseille, France
- Cuídese Mucho, Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chile 
- Exquisite pain, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
- Ma mère, mon chat, mon père, dans cet ordre, Perrotin, Tokyo 
- Parce que, Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2018
- Dead End, Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
- Sophie Calle - l'Hôtel / Voir La Mer, Espace Louis Vuitton, Munich, Germany
- Souris Calle, Perrotin, Paris, France 
- Parce que, Perrotin, Paris, France 

2017
- Crossing the Line Festival - Sophie Calle: Voir la mer curated by French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), Times Square, New York, USA
- Beau doublé, Monsieur le marquis ! Sophie Calle et son invitée Serena Carone, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France
- Missing, curated by Evelyne Jouanno / Ars Citizen, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, USA

2016
- Histoires vraies, Théâtre Liberté, Toulon, France
- For the Last and First Time, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, Japan

2015
- Sophie Calle, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- For the Last and First Time, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
- Cuídese mucho, Centro Cultural Kirchner, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Modus vivendi, La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona, Spain
- Sophie Calle: North Pole, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, USA
- Pour la dernière et pour la première fois, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada

2014
- Sophie Calle, Makoto Aida, Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
- Cuídese mucho, Museo Tamayo, Mexico city, Mexico
- MAdRE, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
- Sophie Calle, An Introduction, Un cabinet d’amateur, Sofia, Bulgaria
- Cuídese mucho, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico
- Rachel Monique, Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York, USA
- Voir la mer, Église Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, Valloire, France

2013
- Dérobés, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- Last Seen, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA
- Absence, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA
- Chambre 20, Hôtel La Mirande, Avignon, France
- Où et Quand?, 313 Art Project, Seoul, South Korea
- For the Last and First Time, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
- Take Care of Yourself, Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway

2012
- Pour la dernière et pour la première fois, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- Pour la dernière et pour la première fois, Rencontres d’Arles, Chapelle du Méjan, Arles, France
- Rachel Monique, Festival d’Avignon, Église des Célestins, Avignon, France
- Historias de pared, Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia
- Moi aussi, Musée du Septennat, Château-Chinon, France
- Historias de pared, Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia
- Take Care of Yourself, Espoon modernin taiteen museo, Espoon, Finland
- Take Care of Yourself, The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Saint Louis, USA

2011
- Take Care of Yourself / Hoia end. Ole tubli, Tallinna Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia
- Son Kez, Ilk Kez, Sakip Sabanci Müzesi, Istanbul, Turkey
- True Stories, Prospect.2, 1850 House of the Louisiana State Museum, Nouvelle-Orléans, USA
- Room, Crossing the Line, The Lowell Hotel, New York, USA

2010
- Sophie Calle: 2010 Hasselblad Award Winner, Hasselblad Foundation, Göteborg, Sweden
- Rachel Monique, Friche du Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
- Where and when? Lourdes, Art Gallery Christina Wilson, Copenhaguen, Denmark
- Talking to Strangers, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark ; De Pont Museum, Tilbourg, Netherlands

2009
- The Address Book, Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, USA
- Cuide de você, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro ; Museu de Arte Moderna de Salvador de Bahia ; SESC Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil
- Earth: Art of a Changing World, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
- Talking to Strangers, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK

- Calle Sophie, Palais des Beaux-Arts, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium
- No Sex Last Night, Centre Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Take Care of Yourself, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA
- Où et Quand? Berck / Lourdes, Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany

2008
- Où et Quand ? Berck / Lourdes, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- Prenez soin de vous, Fondation pour l’art contemporain DHC/ART, Montréal, Canada
- Prenez soin de vous, Bibliothèque nationale de France, site Richelieu, Paris, France

2007
- Prenez soin de vous, Pavillon français de la 52e Biennale de Venise, Italy
- Douleur exquise (mise en scène Frank Gehry et Edwin Chan), Rotunda 1 de Bonnevoie, Luxembourg

2006
- La Cabine téléphonique (en collaboration avec Frank Gehry), Pont du Garigliano, Paris, France
- True Stories, Galerie Perrotin, Miami, USA

2005
- Exquisite Pain, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA
- Exquisite Pain, Portland Art Museum, USA

2004
- M’as-tu vue, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
- M’as-tu vue, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
- True Stories, Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany
- Die Entfernung – The Detachment, Kunst im Deutschen Bundestag, Berlin, Germany

2003
- M’as-tu vue, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Dommages collatéraux, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- Sophie Calle, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
- Editions, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan

2002
- Gotham Handbook, Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany
- Sophie Calle, Spectrum, International Prize for Photography of the Foundation of Lower Saxony, Sprengel Museum, Hanovre, Germany

2001
- Double Game, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA
- Sophie Calle, Public Places – Private Spaces, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, USA
- Vingt ans après, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- Editions, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France

2000
- Die wahren Geschichten der Sophie Calle, Fridericianum, Cassel ; Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany
- Sophie Calle..., Librairie des Archives, Paris, France
- Sophie Calle, École régionale des Beaux-arts de Dunkerque, France
- Souvenirs de Berlin-Est, XXXIes Rencontres internationales de la photographie , Librairies Actes Sud, Arles, France
- Sophie Calle – Sol LeWitt, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, USA

1999
- Les Tombes, Galerie Clara Rainhorn, Brussels, Belgium
- Doubles-jeux, Galerie Erna Hécey, Luxembourg
- Doubles-jeux, Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse, France
- Double Game, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
- Appointment with Sigmund Freud, Freud Museum London, UK
- Souvenirs de Berlin-Est, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, France
- De l’obéissance, Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany
- Double Game, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan
- Douleur exquise, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
- The Eruv, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA

1998
- L’Hôtel. La sphère de l’intime, Printemps de Cahors, France
- Doubles-jeux, Centre national de la photographie, Paris, France
- Double Game, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK
- Detachment - Die Entfernung, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Essen, Germany
- The Birthday Ceremony, Tate Britain, London, UK
- L’Erouv, Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris, France

1997
- Relatos, Fundación « la Caixa », Barcelona ; Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, Grenada, Spain
- Detachment – Die Entfernung, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
- Comme si de rien n’était, Fondation Ledig-Rowohlt, Château de Lavigny Switzerland
- The Sleepers, Suite vénitienne, Birthday Ceremony, Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, USA
- Suite vénitienne, White Cube, London, UK

1996
- True Stories, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
- The Eruv of Jerusalem, Artfocus - International Biennal of Contemporary Art, Jerusalem, Israel
- Sophie Calle, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA
- Des Histoires vraies, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan
- L’Erouv, XXVIIes Rencontres internationales de la photographie, Librairie Actes Sud, Arles, France
- L’Erouv, Journées d’art contemporain de Porto, Synagogue de Porto, Portugal
- The Detachment - Die Entfernung, Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany
- Relatos, Fundación « la Caixa », Madrid, Spain

1995
- Fravaer, Portalen, Copenhaguen, Denmark
- Proof, University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara ; Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland ; David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, USA
- Les Autobiographies, Printemps de Cahors, France
- Les Tombes, Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany

1994
- L’Absence, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- The Husband, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, USA
- The Sleepers, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
- Les Aveugles, Sala Amárica, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
- Romances, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, USA
- L’Absence, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, France
- Des histoires vraies, FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France
- Des histoires vraies, Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse, France
- L’Absence, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland

1993
- Blind Color, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, USA
- Proofs, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA
- Los Ciegos, Las Tumbas, Anatoli, Sala Mendoza, Caracas ; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Maracay, Venezuela

1992
- The Graves, Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, USA
- A suivre, Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden
- Sophie Calle, Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, USA
- Pierre tombale, Centre culturel français, Palerme, Italy
- Les Tombes, Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse, France

1991
- Sophie Calle, Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, USA
- Sophie Calle, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, USA
- A suivre, ARC, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
- Sophie Calle in under skinnët, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

1990
- Sophie Calle. A Survey, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
- The Sleepers, Matrix Gallery, Berkeley University, USA
- Les Tombes, Galería La Máquina Española, Séville, Spain
- Les Tombes, Galerie Crousel-Robelin Bama, Paris, France

1989
- Sophie Calle. A Survey, Fred Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1988
- Sophie Calle, Galería Montenegro, Madrid, Spain

1987
- J’ai rencontré des gens qui sont nés aveugles, Centre d’art de Flaine, France
- Anatoli, Museotrain du FRAC Limousin, Limoges, France

1986
- Anatoli, École des Beaux-Arts de Dunkerque ; Centre d’art contemporain, Orléans, France
- Les Aveugles, Galerie Crousel-Hussenot, Paris, France ; Tasmanian College of the Arts, Hobart, Australia ; De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1985
- Sophie Calle, APAC - centre d’art contemporain, Nevers, France

1984
- L’Hôtel C., Galerie Formi, Nîmes, France

1983
- L’Hôtel C., Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, France

1981
- Les Dormeurs, Galerie Canon, Geneva, Switzerland

1980
- The Bronx, Fashion Moda, New York, USA

group shows

2021
- I Got You, Hot Wheels, Athens, Greece
- Le supermarché des images, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China
- We are Animals, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Mother!, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art , Denmark

2020 
- Push The Limits, Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy
- Animals in Art, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj, Denmark
- Le supermarché des images, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
- Looking at Women, Bernal Espacio, Madrid, Spain

2019
- Creatures: When Species Meet, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA

2018
- In the cut - The Male Body In Feminist Art, Stadtgalerie Saarbrucken, Germany 

2017
- Review : 25 years De Pont, De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands
- Schlaf. Eine produktive Zeitverschwendung, Museen Böttcherstraße, Bremen, Germany
- An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy In Contemporary, curated by Henriette Huldisch, MIT Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, USA
- Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânarie curated by Thomas Collins, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA
- 2017 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize Shortlist, The Photographers Gallery, London, UK ; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
- Picturing Love: Photography’s Pursuit of Intimacy, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, USA

2016
- The Human Condition, Session II: Human And The Others. Love, friendship, suspicion, aversion, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
- Tell Me What I Mean, To__Bridges__, Bronx, USA
- Dream States: Contemporary Photographs and Video, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
- L’image volée, curated by Thomas Demand, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
- Public, Private, Secret, curated by Charlotte Cotton, International Center of Photography, New York, USA

2015
- ON TIME: Photoworks from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, Paris Photo, Paris, France
- Archive Bound, The Center for Book Arts, New York, USA
- For Future Reference, Centre for Contemporary Photographs, Fitzroy, Australia
- Wild Noise, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, USA
- Urban Anxiety, Bonniers Kunsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
- Arts & Food, curated by Germano Celant, La Triennale di Milano, Italy
- The Memory of Time, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
- Gallery 3010, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon

2014
- S’il y a Lieu Je Paris Avec Vous, Le Bal, Paris, France
- Unsold, Gallery Koyangi, Tokyo, Japan

2013
- I Look to You and I See Nothing, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- The Opposite of Justice, Base Arte Contemporanea Odierna, Bergamo, Italy
- Everyone Carries a Room Inside, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
- Happy Birthday Galerie Perrotin / 25 ans, Tripostal, Lille, France
- Within & Beyond: Works from Gemini G.E.L., Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas, USA
- Fault Lines, curated by Constance Lewallen, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, USA
- Walk-On: 40 Years of Art Walking from Richard Long to Janet Cardiff, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK
- The Distaff Side, The Granary, Sharon, USA
- Merci Mercy, 980 Madison Gallery, New York, USA
- Conceptual Geographies: Frames and Documents: Selections from the Ella Fontanals- Cisneros Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, New York, USA
- The Unphotographable, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, USA


2012
- Urban Archives: The Rituals of Chaos, Bronx Museum of the Arts, USA
- Célébration Rêve de nature, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valence, Valence, France
- Carnal Knowledge: Sex + Philosophy, Leslie Tonkonow, New York, USA
- This Will Have Been: Art, Love, and Politics in the 1980’s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, ; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis ; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
- Spies in the House of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
- Sophie Calle, Christian Marclay, Paul Pfeiffer, Walid Raad, Michael Sailstorfer, Carey Young, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA

2011
- Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, USA
- Body Gesture, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, USA
- Prospect.2 Biennial, curated by Dan Cameron, multiple venues, New Orleans, USA
- For the Last and First Time, Sakip Sabanci Museum, 12th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey
- The Rest, Pepe Cobo y cia, Madrid, Spain

2010
- The Talent Show, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
- Memory, Westport Arts Center, Westport, USA
- You can’t get there from here buy you can get here from there, apexart, New York, USA
- Memories of the Future, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
- Che Fare? Arte Povera, the historic years, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
- Human, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France
- Introducing the Fisher Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
- Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera, Tate Modern, London, UK
- In Full Bloom, curated by Antonio Grulli, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy
- Feeling what no longer is, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, USA
- The Talent Show, curated by Peter Eleey, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
- I Love You, curated by Pernille Taagaard and Lise Mortensen, ARos Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Århus C, Denmark
- Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, curated by Jennifer Blessing and Nat Trotman, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
- FALL OUT – art, desire and disengagement, curated by Mads Damsbo and Merete Jankowski, Gl Holtegaard, Denmark, and Malmö Kunsthal, Sweden

2009
- 1989. End of History or Beginning of the Future? KUNSTHALLE wien, Vienna, Austria
- Reading & Writing, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, USA
- From Private to Public: Collections at the Guggenheim Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
- The Lens and the Mirror: Self-Portraits from the Collection, 1957-2007, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
- Darkside II – Fotografische Macht und fotografierte Gewalt, Krankheit und Tod, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
- With You I Want to Live: Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Collection, Museum of Art, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, USA
- After Image, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA
- Regift curated by John Miller, Swiss Institute, New York, USA

2008
- Mr.’s Nobody Dies Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
- Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion, Blaffer Gallery, The Art Museum of the University of Houston, USA
- The New Normal, curated by Michael Connor, Artist Space, New York, USA ; traveling to Haurte Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Huarte, Spain
- Slightly Unbalanced, organized by Independent Curators International, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, USA; traveling to Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, USA; and to Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette, USA

2007
- Exhibitionism: An Exhibition of Exhibitions of Works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, curated by Matthew Higgs, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson
- Seeing Things, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, USA
- Group Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami, USA
- Philosophy of the Bedroom, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA

2006
- Art, Life & Confusion, organized by René Block and Barbara Heinrich, 47th October Salon, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
- Transitional Objects: Contemporary Still Life, curated by Dede Young, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, NY - Strange Powers, organized by Laura Hoptman and Peter Eleey, Creative Time, New York, New York
- Dormir, rêver...et autres nuits, Musée d’art contemporain Bordeaux, France
- Dark Places, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, USA

2005
- Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
- Sophie Calle + Hiroshi Sugimoto, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan
- Theorema. Une collection privée en Italie, la collection d’Enea Righi, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
- At The Mercy of Others: The Politics of Care (2005 Whitney Museum ISP Exhibition), The Art Gallery of The Graduate Center of the CUNY, New York, USA
- Experiencing Duration: Biennale d’art contemporain de Lyon 2005, Lyon, France
- Superstars: From Warhol to Madonna, Kunstfofrum Vienna Kunsthale, Austria

2004
- Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston,
- Shutters, University at Buffalo Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
- Beauty Matters, Tina Kim Fine Art, New York, USA
- Realm of the Senses, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA

2003
- Love, Bregenzer Kunstverein / Magazin4, Bregenz, Germany
- Silent Screams Difficult Dreams, Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germain
- Gegenwartig: Feldforschung, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
- Un été a Toulouse, Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse, France
- Treat yourself: health consumers in a medical age, Science Museum, London, UK
- The Furtive Gaze, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, USA
- Warum !, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
- Fantome du plaisir, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Germany
- Talking pieces, Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen, Germany
- Rituale, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
- Fables de l’identité, Collection NSM Vie / ABN AMRO, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
- Collection, Nouvelle Presentation, Musee d’ Art Contemporain Lyon, France

2002
- New Hotels for Global Nomads, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, USA
- Testing the Arches, Center for Curatorial Studies Tenth Anniversary, Bard College (curated by Ilaria Bonacossa and Cecilia Brunson), Annanndale-on-Hudson, USA
- En Route, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
- The Photographic Impulse, (curated by Tom Collins) Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
- Family, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, USA
- Iconoclash, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
- Self/In Material Conscience, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Cuneo, Italy
- Photography by Gallery Artists, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, USA
- Mirror Alterations, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson, New York, USA
- Surrounding Interiors: Views Inside the Car, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, USA
- Taboo: Mavericks and Hot Iron, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland
- Public Affairs, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland
- Iconoclash, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Germany
- Mitologie Individuali, PAC, Mailand, Italy
- Self: In Material Conscience, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
- Stories, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
- Photographier, Collection Lambert, Musée de l’Histoire, Luxembourg

2001
- Part Two (1988-1994), Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, USA
- Game Show, Mass MoCA, North Adams, USA
- Conversation(s), Musée Départemetal de Gap, Marseille, France
- Ellipsis, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York, USA
- Dévoler Institut d’art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, France
- Beautiful Productions, art to play, art to wear, art to own, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
- Depicting Absence / Implying Presence, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, USA
- Purloined Artists Space, New York, USA
- A Private Reading, The Book as Image and Object, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York, USA
- CTRL [Space]: Rhetorik der Überwachung von Bentham bis Big Brother, curated by Thomas Y. Levin, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Germany
- Things to Come, Galerie Erna Hecey, Luxembourg
- Arret sur image: Zeitgenossische Kunst aus Frankreich, Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany

2000
- The Go-Between, Galerie Erna Hécey, Luxembourg
- Carpe Diem – La part d’autobiographique dans l’ouvre d’art, Ecole supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nimes, France
- A Table, Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France
- Vanitas Parsonae, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA
- Petites Mythologies, Chateau de Tarascon, France
- L’empire du temps, myths at création, Louvre, Paris
- Werke Raum 1, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
- Ich ist etwas anderes, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
- La casa, il corpo, il cuoare; Constructions of the identities, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
- Die scheinbaren Dinge, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
- Automobility, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland
- La Photographie Traversée, Résonances, Croisements, Disparitions, XXXIèmes Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France
- Around 1984: A Look at Art in the 80’s, P.S.1, New York, USA

1999
- Veronica’s Revenge: Photographs from the Lambert Art Collection, Casino Luxembourg at Musée national d’histoire et d’art, Luxemburg
- Museum as Muse, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- Necropolis, Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois, Paris, France
- Urban Mythologies, Bronx Museum of Arts, New York, USA
- Passage New French Art, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
- True Stories, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, Germany
- Souvenir Utopie, Stadthaus Ulm, Germany
- L’art cu centre, Auswahl von Arbeiten aus dem Centre Georges pompidou, Epinay-sur-Seine, France
- Collection du Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Sion, Switzerland
- Arsaevi, Museo d’arte contemporaneo, Skenderija center, Sarajevo, Bosnia
- Collection de la Fondation Cartier, Centre culturel de Belém, Portugal
- L’écrit, le mot, le texte, Fondation d’art contemporain Daniel et Florence Guerlain, Les Mesnuls, France
- Le sommeil ou quand la raison s’absente, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Arts / Ecriture, FRAC Provence Alpes cotes d’Azur, Chapelle Ste Anne, Arles, France
- Une histoire parmi d’autres, FRAC Nord Pas de Calais, France
- The Jewish Museum, New York, New York, USA
- Carlton College Art Gallery, Northfield, Minneapolis, USA

1998
- RESOLUTION, Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany
- Early Forms, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, France
- Deep Storage – Arsenale der Erinnerung, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany
- Premises, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
- Words and Images, Miami Art Museum, USA
- Musée d’art et Judaisme, Paris, France
- L’étonnante gravité des choses simples, Abbaye Saint-André, Meymac, France
- Le fragment, la durée, le montage, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Quimper, France
- Paris, Galleri F-15, Moss, Norway
- Collection contemporaines, nouvelle présentation, Musée d’art Moderne de Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
- Collection d’art contemporain de la Fondation La Caixa, Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, Grenada, Spain
- La sphere de l’intime, Printemps de Cahors, France
- Narrador d’historias, Fondacio La Caixa, Madrid, Spain
- Photographies, Gaerie Erna Hécey, Luxemburg

1997
- Veronica’s Revenge: Photographs from the Lambert Art Collection, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
- Trade Routes: History and Geography, Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Montenegro Biennale, Montenegro
- Sophie Calle: The Husband (Autobiographical Stories) and Other Works, Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City, USA
- Mascara I Mirall, Museu d’art contemporani (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain
- Fenetre sur Cour, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
- Framed Area, Amsterdam (film in einem Drive-in), Netherlands
- La Photographie comtemporaine en France : Dix ans d’acquisitions, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Amours, Cartier Foundation, Paris, France
- 7. International Biennale der Fotographie, Turin, Italy
- Deep Storage – Arsenale der Erinnerung, Haus der Kunst, Münhen / Kulturforum Berlin, Germany
- Crossing: France / Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, USA
- Floating Images of Women in Art History, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, Japan
- Survey Results Show... Oakville Galleries Ontario, Canada
- Engel, Engel, Kusthalle Wien / Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
- 20 ans, Le Consortium, Dijon (film), France
- Le Songe de Constantin, Villa Noailles, Hyeres, France
- Fenetre au sud, Cergy-Pontoise, France
- A Vendre, Galerie Erna Hécey, Luxemburg
- Message, Galerie Schüppenhauer, Cologne, Germany

1996
- NowHere, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
- Identités et affinités, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dole, France
- By Night, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France
- Imagined Communities, Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham; John Hansard Gallery; University of Southhampton: Firstsite at the Minorities, Colchester; Walsall Museum and Art Gallery; Royal Festival Hall, London; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
- Passions privées, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
- More than Real, Palazzo Reale: Caserta, Galleria Raucci/Santa Maria, Naples, Italy
- Bons enfants, Plakataktion Kunst im offentlichen Raum, Germany
- Carte blanche à fouad bellamine, Villa Roudani, Casablanca, Marocco
- Dîtes-le avec des fleurs, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, France
- Fool’s Rain, ICA, London, UK
- Le Voyage Extraordinaire, Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon, France
- La photograohie contemporaine en France – dix ans d’acquisitions, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Exposure, Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, USA
- Arts dans la ville, Musée de la Mine, Puits Couriot, Saint-Etienne, France
- Concours des circontances, FRAC Centre – Ecole régionale des Beaux-Arts de Tours, France
- Réels, Fictions, Virtuel, XXVIIèmes Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France
- 1989-1995: deuxième époque, F.R.A.C. Limousin, France
- For the Museum of Contemporary Art: Sarajevo 2000, the 1996 Collection, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Art Focus, Jerusalem, Israel
- Féminin-Masculin Cinéma, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Voyeur’s Delight, Franklin Furnace, New York, USA
- L’expérience du Monochrome... Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France
- Operat ’96 – Narrative Art 1970-1990, Ravenna, Italy

1995
- Incidents, Casa da Parra, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Art Museum, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
- Els límits del museu, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain
- Photography and Beyond: New Expressions in France, The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida; Museum of Contemporay Photogrpahy, Chicago, Illinois; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California; Bard College Museum, New York, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
- Moderna Galerija, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Printemps de Cahors, France
- Fetishism, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Brighton; Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
- Fantômes et autres revenants, Château de Biron, Monpazier, France
- Féminin/masculin, le sexe de l’art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- The Vision of Art in a Paradoxical World, Bienal Internacional de Istanbul, Turkey
Stereo-Tip, Soros Center, Mestna Galerija, Ljublijana, Slovenia

1994
- Art & the Social conscience, Project Row Houses, Houston, USA
- The Psycho-Pathology of Everyday Life, Ruth Bloom Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
- Arte in Francia, 1970 / 1993, Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
- Evidence of Death, The Light Factory, Photographic Arts Center, Charlotte, USA
- Some Went Mad...Some Ran Away, Serpentine Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; Portalen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Endstation Sehnsucht, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Gift, The InterArt Center, New York, USA
- ...ou les oiseaux selon Schopenhauer, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Agen, France
- Züge, Züge. Die Eisenbahn in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen; Städtische Galerie, Göppingen, Germany - Taking Pictures, International Center of Photography, New York, New York
- Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
- A Sense of Place, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, USA
- Art and the Social Conscience, Robert McClain & Co., Houston, USA
- Where is Home?, Kent Gallery, New York, USA
- Beyond Photography, Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Ludwig Museum, Koln; Serpentine Gallery, London; The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; The High Museum, Atlanta; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA

1993
- Luhring Augustine, New York, USA
- Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
- Memories, Facts & Lies, Blum Helman Gallery, New York, USA
- Blind Color, Leo Castelli, New York, USA
- Wooster Gardens, New York, USA
- Doubletake, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
- Documentario 2, Spazio Opos, Milan, Italy
- Nachtschattengewächse – The Nightshade Family, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
- Histoire de voir, Château de Villeneuve, Vence, France
- Strange Hotel, Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- Camaras de Friccion - P. Cabritas Reis, S. Calle, A. Wilding, J. Usle, Galeria Luis Adelantado, Valencia, Spain - Über-Leben, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany
- Group Exhibition, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, USA
- Building a Collection, Part I, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
- Public Figures, Herron Gallery, Indianapolis, USA

1992
- Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, USA
- Doubletake: Collective Memory and Contemporary Art, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
- Avstand, Muséet för Nutids Konst, Helsinki, Finland
- Le Portrait dans l’Art Contemporain, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France - Theoretically Yours, Chiesa di S. Lorenzo, Aosta, Italy
- Bedroom Eyes: Room with a View, California State University, Fullerton, USA
- France, Troisième Génération, World Fair, Sevilla, Spain

1991
- Vanitas, Galerie Crousel-Robelin; Bama, Paris, France
- Erotic Desire, Galerie Perspektief, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Indivisualités: 14 Contemporary Artists from France, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
- Disloacations, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, USA
- L’Amour d’Art, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France
- La Photographie dans la Collection, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nîmes, France
- Grandes lignes, quand l’art entre en gare, Gare de l‘Est, Paris, France
- The Interrupted Life, The Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
- Hommage a Georges Boudaille, Gare d’Austerlitz, Paris
- Lato Sensu, Kopenhagen; Hamburg, Germany ; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse, France
- Too French, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
- Les Couleurs de l’Argent, Musée de la Poste, Paris, France
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France
- Dislocations, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- Storie, Gallerie Caolli, Milan, Italy
- Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, USA

1990
- Autour de René Payant, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Canada
- Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia
- Seven Obsessions, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
- The Ready-Made Boomerang, Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia
- Modèles Déposés - 1, C.A.U.E., Limoges, France
- Keys for a Building, Galerie Crousel-Robelin/Bama, Paris, France
- Beyond the Photographic Frame, Mito Arts Foundation, Ibaraki, Japan
- Images in Transition: Photographic Representation Towards the 90’s, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
- Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, USA
- Exposed, Vivian Horan Fine Art, New York, USA
- Strip-tease de l’intime, Galerie Urbi & Orbi, Paris, France
- Sophie Calle, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., Stephen Prina, Trans-Avant-Garde Gallery, San Francisco, USA

1989
- At Face Value, Kettle’s Yard Gallery, Cambridge, UK
- Frontières, Galerie Christine Le Chanjour, Nice, France
- Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK
- Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
- Tenir l’image à distance, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Canada
- Tendances Actuelles de la Photographie en France, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France - Nos Années 80, Fondation Cartier, Jouy-en-Josas, France
- Histoires de Musée, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
- Fictions (organized by Jérôme Sans), Aéroport de Mirabel, Montréal, Canada
- Aubes 3935, Montréal, Canada
- Monat der Fotografie, Leinwandhaus, Frankfurt, Germany
- Buena Vista, John Gibson Gallery, New York, USA
- Contemporary European Art, First Bank Skyway Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
- L’Invention d’un art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Painting / Object / Photograph, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, USA
- Culture Medium, International Center of Photography, New York, USA
- Shifting Focus, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK

1988
- Au-delà de l’Image, Photofest, Houston, USA
- Art & Text, First National Bank, Minneapolis, USA
- Cornelius Craig Gallery, New York, USA
- La Photo à la Rescousse de l’Art, Apt, France
- Tendances Actuelles de la Photographie en France, Centre National de la Photographie, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

1987
- The New Who’s Who, Hoffman/Borman Gallery, Los Angeles, California - Scared to Breath, Galerie Perspektief, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Galerij de lege Ruinte, Bruges, Belgium

1986
- ’F’ Four French, Lang & O’Hara, New York, New York - Galerie du Jour, Agnès B., Paris, France

1985
- Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn, Museum of Modern Kunst, Vienna, Austria

1984
- Salon de Montrouge, France
- Post-Olympic Art, L.A.C.E., Los Angeles; Beau-Lezard, Paris, France
- Nouvelles Acquisitions du F.N.A.C., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- La Chambre, Centre National de la Photographie, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

1983
- Il n’y a pas à proprement parler une histoire..., Maison de la Culture, Rennes, France
- À Pierre & Marie, 36, rue d’Ulm, Paris, France

1982
- Du Livre, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France
- Une autre Photographie, Maison de la Culture, Créteil, France
- Réseau Art, Paris, France
- Le Poids des Mots, Le Choc des Photos, Au fond de la cour à droite, Chagny, France

1981
- Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, France
- Autoportraits, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Galerie Zabriskie, Paris, France
- Culture Medium, International Center of Photography, New York, USA
- Acquisitions Récentes des Collectionneurs Genevois, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland
- Erweiterte Fotografie – 5. Winer International Biennale, Wiener Sezession, Vienna, Austria

1980
- 11, Biennale des Jeunes, A.R.C.; Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
- Une Idée en l’Air, The Clocktowe ; Fashion Moda, New York, USA

public collections

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA
Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, USA
Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, Boston, USA
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA
Kadist, San Francisco, USA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
Kemper Art Museum, Saint-Louis, USA
MCA Chicago, USA
JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, New York, USA
Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France 
Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, France
Tate Museum, London, UK
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada
De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, Netherlands
Fundaciòn "la Caixa", Barcelona, Spain
Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
Sakip Sabanci Müzesi, Istanbul, Turkey
Museum on the seam, Tel Aviv, Israel
Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, Danemark
Hasselblad Foundation, Göteborg, Sweden
The National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Danemark
Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain 
MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Poland
Cimetière des Rois, Genève, Switzerland
Musée de Nîmes, France
Chateau La Coste, Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, France
FRAC Limousin, Limoges, France
FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Marseille, France
FRAC Île-de-France, France 








 

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Born in 1953 in Paris, Sophie Calle is a writer, a conceptual artist, a photograph, a movie director or even detective. She might be a little of each, according to the characters that she interprets, the rituals she imagines, the parts of her life that she tells and the feelings that she shares. The artist often explores the investigations methods and her work , most of the time, consists in the association between photography and text. Sophie Calle creates her own game rules.

Talking to Strangers

by Iwona Blawick

What happens when two radically opposed artistic traditions collide? Take the work of art as the reclining nude, a figure in a picture. Its subject is passive, the aesthetic object of the artist’s gaze, part of a pictorial tradition that dominated painting from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. Now take the work of art as a body in space. Its subject is the artist’s body and that of anyone entering the space of the work transformed into active participant. Here we recall the radical propositions of performance art of the 1960s and 1970s. It is an unlikely fusion of these traditions that characterizes Sophie Calle’s paradigmatic work of 1979, The Sleepers. It is also why we can regard her work as a new kind of figuration, one that offers social interaction.
‘I’d set up a small lab ... I’d met Gloria Friedman who had an enlarger, while I had a basement. We took turns. One morning, she woke me up so that I could have my turn. Because she didn’t feel up to going back home, she asked me if she could lie down in my bed. She must have said something like: “The sheets are warm, it’s nice …” I probably said something like: “That would be fun, a bed that’s always got someone in it”. Calle contacted friends, acquaintances and strangers and asked whether they would sleep in her bed and allow her to photograph them.
‘I intended my bedroom to become a constantly occupied space for eight days, with sleepers succeeding one another at regular intervals.’
The black and white photographs of The Sleepers are interspersed with short written accounts of each volunteer and Calle’s exchange with them. They can be regarded as models in the classic sense – they recline and they are pictured. Yet Calle’s images of them are neither aesthetic nor erotic; they appear documentary, like evidence compiled by a detective or a psychologist. Each subject is also a participant. Although the artist asks them to make a work, her invitation requires only that they rest. They act by agreeing to enter the intimate space of the artist’s bed with all its connotations of the body in sickness and in health. There is the frisson of sex, the taboo of hygiene. To be horizontal is also to be vulnerable, incapacitated. There is a strong element of risk for the participants – one, a babysitter, is frightened and phones her boyfriend to ask his advice – and for Calle, whose motivation could be misinterpreted – ‘He tells me he came because he thought there would be an orgy’.
By asking her subjects to sleep, Calle allows them a measure of autonomy, allowing them to disappear appear into their unconscious. When they awake they look as if they have returned from a journey, silent, blurry-eyed, acclimatizing to the light and the strange situation in which they find themselves. Both Calle and the sleepers are vulnerable: she is sharing her bedroom with strangers. They are asleep in the bed of a woman they do not know. Each has made a pact of trust.
The Sleepers offers a paradigm for understanding Calle’s future oeuvre: making a proposal that triggers a sequence of unpredictable events, and involves a degree of risk, even danger; bringing strangers temporarily into the realms of intimacy; and documenting the consequences through text and image. The bed itself has been a recurrent motif, with its attendant connotations of the erotic and of the unconscious. Above all, Calle enters into temporary agreements with strangers that require mutual trust. It is this aspect of her work that suggests a political and ethical dimension.
Taking up the camera initially gave Calle a way of ‘getting about and discovering the city’.4 Being behind a lens offers a protective distance, the detachment of the observer also crucial to the flâneur. In 1980, Calle agreed to participate in a show at the Fashion Moda Gallery in the South Bronx. ‘Right away I stumbled upon a simple idea: playing with the fear created by that neighbourhood and its ghetto aspect.’5 Calle stopped passers-by on the streets of the Bronx between 2 and 5 p.m. and asked them to take her somewhere of their choice.
Following New York State’s bankruptcy in the 1970s, the Bronx had suffered unprecedented levels of unemployment, dereliction and violence. One of her guides comments, ‘when a white person comes to the neighbourhood, it is either a policeman, a dope peddler or it is a mistake’.
Calle recounts each encounter in a framed text. Beside it is an image of the destination selected by each passerby – the ruin of what was someone’s home; a lone sapling tree.
Calle used the terms of an enquiry to offer a framework for interaction. Despite the ‘shield’ offered by her camera Calle does not succumb to the opportunism of photo journalism. Her subjects shape the narrative structure of the work by determining the route the artist follows; and they select what she should portray of their terrain. Calle’s youth, gender and white skin make her a potential target; yet no one abuses her trust. Each is given their voice and their opportunity to memorialize a loss or find some expression of hope in this hostile landscape. The massed ranks of the irredeemable are individuated, given back their humanity by making manifest their search for hope. The night before the show opens the gallery is broken into and all the works are covered in graffiti – Calle leaves the tags on her work simply remarking on an intervention by ‘an unexpected collaborator’.

‘I spend the days with this blotched blotter before me and I read the correspondents’
confidences’ André Breton et Philippe Soupault

The importance of chance in Calle’s work reiterates a preoccupation that runs from Surrealism through the psychogeographic dérives of the Situationists. Chance brings with it the spontaneous, the unexpected and the irrational. As Calle has commented, ‘I like being in control and I like losing control. Opening the door to the unknown, it can also offer the solution as to what to make next. In 1983 the artist found an address book, photocopied it and returned it anonymously to its owner. Some time later he was to read descriptions of himself in the French newspaper, Libération, solicited by Calle from the friends whose contact details she had copied. As with The Sleepers and The Bronx this is also a portrait but the subject is absent. Calle pieces together different perspectives provided by a random group of people who are defined by knowing one individual. As with Breton and Soupault, reading private correspondence from the ink traces on a blotter, there is something voyeuristic, even predatory about this and other works in which Calle has followed and photographed strangers (or their rooms) without their knowledge or permission (Suite Venitienne, 1980/ The Hotel, 1981). ‘I would get to know this man. I would try to find out who he was without ever meeting him …’ There is also the sexual frisson of pursuing the obscure object of desire. Might the appeal of this work to the female viewer lie in the pleasure of this role reversal?
The violation of privacy would certainly have appealed to the anti- bourgeois ethos of the surrealists; someone who is neither topical nor a celebrity, becomes, albeit anonymously, the unwitting topic of a daily newspaper article. If readers hoped for salacious or unpleasant disclosures however, they were to be disappointed. Those providing the descriptions were literary, funny, insightful, yet discreet. Calle’s experiment demon- strates the affection and tolerance we have for each other’s idiosyncrasies and the levels of decorum we adopt when making a public address.

‘The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.’ Sol Lewitt

Just as conceptual artists accorded idea and process equal status, Calle presents the concept of the work as an establishing statement outlining the terms of the experiment and the circumstances for what follows. The results of the initial concept then unfold as a journal or narrative. Experiments require a form of notation; similarly performances and happenings became manifest beyond the moment of their execution through photography. Accompanying Calle’s written commentary is a photographic record of events. Her images have a snapshot quality that looks expedient and intimate. She nearly always pictures people or spaces but her images have neither the drama of reportage nor the aesthetic of the tableaux.
Anatoli (1984) takes the form of a letter addressed to ‘My love’ It continues, ‘I boarded the Trans-Siberian in Moscow, on my way to Vladivostok. It was October 29, 1984, 2.20 p.m. I was in car 7, com- partment 6 … The other traveller was in berth 4. I sat down and waited for him. At 2.30 he walked in.’11 This suspenseful, Hitchcockian opening is enthralling, and as the train pulls out the reader gets on board. In the account that follows Calle describes her life in the train compartment with
a 68 year-old Russian man called Anatoli. They have no grasp of each other’s language. To his annoyance she is also unable to play chess and he tries, unsuccessfully, to swap her for another passenger. He drinks vodka and snores profusely. Yet they establish a routine; they look after one another. Apparently insurmountable barriers disappear through their mutual acts of civility. Her journey is not described in scenic terms; rather it is a wry account of how mutual incomprehension evolves towards an unexpectedly nuanced relationship. Calle’s epistolary account is enlarged and presented as a wall text. The photographs of Anatoli and their brief encounter are unframed and arranged on a table where the visitor is invited to sit and sift through them. Calle invites her viewer to act as witness: to the private language of a love letter, to a personal encounter in a train carriage and to translate these personal relations into the public sphere. This is to engage in what Nicolas Bourriaud, a decade later, identifies as ‘relational’ art, ‘an art that takes as its theoretical horizon the sphere of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an autonomous and private symbolic space’.
Although Calle’s work operates in the sphere of human relations, her project is neither emotionally expressive nor sentimental. Her writings are characterized by a comic detachment, observing rather than interpreting. Driving her work is a desire to find a connection between people and to identify a locus of aspiration that is essentially utopian. This often evolves through the process of a journey. From the expedition to the road movie, this is a narrative form that presupposes a quest, the search for Mandalay, El Dorado, Shangri-la, Hollywood. This is always tempered however, by the artist’s acute awareness that the beckoning ideal is a mirage. Los Angeles (1984) reiterates the strategy she evolved in The Bronx. Where the Bronx is synonymous with fear of the ghetto, Los Angeles symbolizes a form of Occidentalism, and its concomitant association with pioneering. Commissioned to create a piece about the city, Calle ‘… decided to ask people a single question: “Since Los Angeles is literally the city of the angels, where are the angels?”’
The pursuit of hope as expressed by her Californian guides, leads Calle variously to a liquor store, a family living room, and to one man’s conclusion that ‘the whole city is a monument to their failure to appear’.13 If Calle is a sceptic she also demonstrates how giving up on the search for an ideal, whether it be true love, a social aspiration, or even a political ideology –leads to artistic stasis and the impoverishment of the public arena.
She herself is challenged to ‘improve life in New York City’ by the author Paul Auster. Having inspired a character in his 1992 novel, Leviathan, Calle asked him ‘to invent a fictive character which I would attempt to resemble’. He decides instead to send her instructions to be carried out on the streets of New York. These involve smiling at and talking to strangers, helping beggars and homeless people and cultivating a spot. The terms of the ‘social contract’ that is at the heart of her work are here, set by someone else, enabling Calle to relinquish agency - ‘I like to lose control’.
In 1994, on the streets of Manhattan, Calle sets to work. However disingenuous her smiles and overtures to conversation may be, she scores a not inestimable return on her performance: ‘Results of the Operation – 125 smiles given for 72 received … 154 minutes of conversation’. She also decorates a phone booth, furnishing it with flowers, refreshments and a pad for the public’s comments. These range from appreciation to abuse.
The project is an act, a work of fiction and an anthropological experiment. It emerges that beggars would rather smoke than eat; that men ‘can be pigs’; and that most social dialogue takes the form of platitude. But the mission is broadly successful. Art is not instrumentalized, rather its instrumentalization becomes the subject of the work of art. ‘Sophie Calle’ as a character envisioned by Paul Auster and performed by the artist, makes people happy.
In 1996 she embarked on the third of her psychogeographic city tours titled The Detachment. ‘I visited places in Berlin where the symbols of East Germany have been removed. I asked passers-by to describe the objects that once filled these empty spaces.’15 She photographed the location of each public sign or monument detached after the 1989 reunification of East and West Germany and recorded people’s descriptions of what was there. Despite their confidence in recollecting shape, material or colour, they are often visually inaccurate. The emblem of a dove removed from a high rise is variously remembered as ‘bronze’, ‘white’ and ‘stainless steel’. The absence of the symbols that once defined the public realm in ideological terms, also elicits sadness, annoyance and relief – few are indifferent. On the removal of a GDR insignia, a person comments,
‘The instruments of utopia have now disappeared. All that’s left is the utopia, but an empty one. We only see the void’. The monuments and signs that are part of the fabric of the city and that become invisible with familiarity are, paradoxically brought sharply into focus by their absence. Calle elicits reflections from the citizens of East Berlin on how ideology shaped not only their urban environment but also their sense of identity. Most critically they mourn the loss of ‘the possibility of remembering’. With the removal of the propagandist symbols of the state, history appears to have been erased. Calle relocates it within the memories of her subjects. The unreliability of their visual recall makes this history a subjective one, giving it a veracity and a complexity that transforms it into a narrative of lived experience. In the new dawn of unification, there is no illusion about the triumph of capitalism. ‘We could just leave things as they are. As traces. Rather than make way for Coca-Cola signs’.
A work where her subjects were unable to talk back generated a fifteen year crisis in its making. In 1988, invited by an American bank to make a project, the artist gained access to the surveillance films taken by hidden cameras, of clients using cash machines. Although struck by the strange betrayal of trust that these covert films represent, by the mysterious beauty of the portraits they make and by the occasional crime they document but cannot actually prevent, she can’t work out what to do with them. Years pass. Calle interviews tellers, she photographs money, she talks to security agents and policemen. In 1994 she asks Jean Baudrillard to help out. She visits a hypnotist. Still nothing. In 2003 she decides to make a video about all these failures and to show the original photographs of the cash machine’s users. Frustrated by the silence of these strangers and by the abstraction of money itself - ‘Is it because money is an enabler that I am unable to find an angle on it?’16 – Calle struggles to bring the closed-circuit encounter between a person and a machine into the subjective terms of her authorship. Unfinished (2003) is another journey, towards the elusive act of creation itself. If social interaction is one engine driving Calle’s work, autobiography is the other. The epic Take Care of Yourself (2007) takes as its muse a former lover. On receiving his email ending their relationship she takes literally his suggestion that she should take care of herself, by asking for professional assistance. Making the letter the transitional object for the locus of anger and loss, she commissioned over 100 women whose jobs touch on human relations, to give their professional response to it. Some provide literary, psychological and legal analysis; others use their creative skills as dancers, singers, storytellers or performers, to make an alchemical transformation of the letter into multiple works of art. The operatic scale of this installation, initially presented at the French pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, encompasses moving image, sound and printed matter. On being invited to represent France, Calle advertised for a curator; the winning applicant was the artist, Daniel Buren. Together they collated Calle’s films, recordings, photographs and transcripts of the women’s professional responses, into a Borgesian library, a labyrinth of text, sound and image.
Take Care of Yourself proceeds from a betrayal of trust represented by rejection and exacerbated by its delivery via the remote proxy of the email. Calle mirrors this act of displacement by employing others to analyse or perform the source of her anguish. Neither mawkish nor vengeful, this composite work presents a remarkable testament to the poise, wisdom and artistry of 107 women. This work of art proceeds from Calle’s transference and sublimation of pain and emerges through the symbolic acts of her female chorus.
While each contribution is characterized by absolute tact and professional composure, it is difficult to resist the comic deflation visited on the self- regard of Calle’s male muse. By contrast, the power of Couldn’t Capture Death (2007) rests in an almost unbearable use of humour to mark the trauma of death. Taking the form of a wall text, Calle portrays her mother by recounting the arrangements she makes as she prepares to die. The organizing structure of this, perhaps Calle’s most profound written work, takes each distinct action as the final one of its kind: ‘The last journey’, ‘her last party’, ‘a last poem’. Throughout this devastating yet elegiac epitaph, Calle enumerates the activities that elevate us above mere existence: looking at the sea, reading, listening to Mozart. The significance of perceiving nature, immersion in culture and of recourse to the comic –
‘her epitaph: I’m getting bored already!’ is not only a way of paying tribute to this central figure in her life. It is also a testament to how the pleasure, the continuity and necessity of these acts, transcend mortality. If her mother’s last breath evaded capture, this work of art can be said to have captured her life.
Although enacted in 2005 the final work in the Whitechapel exhibition, which this book accompanies, is recuperative. Where and When? Berck (2008) is the name of a seaside town in France that has thirteen hospitals, its beach the site of convalescence. Having persuaded Maud Kristen, a clairvoyant, to use her powers to propose a course of action, Calle travels to Berck at the suggestion of Maud’s cards. Once there, she reports by phone on her encounters, which Maud offers to ‘the cosmos’ for interpretation and guidance as to how to proceed. For Calle, ‘It is restful. Obeying rules, controlled wandering, the relief of not having to judge events … everything becomes a sign and so glows with grace’.17 A woman invites Calle to take deep breaths of air and to note its singularity in different locations. The cards indicate that she should find a memorial to two dead brothers who had loved boats and challenges. The monument she finds is blank. At this moment she receives a phone message from a friend, one of two brothers who love boats and challenges and whose surname is Berque. On her way home to Paris, she buys a souvenir for Maud from a café called Succès berckois. Maud comments, ‘I just wanted to admire the coincidences’. The work appears as a book where flipping the pages shows the cards in action; and a film. The final image is a road leading into the sea. For the artist and the viewer who accompanies her, this bland coastal town has unexpectedly offered a breath of fresh air, life instead of death.
Calle adopts multiple identities as author, performer and character. She invents or invites games and rituals to pass the time and initiate social exchange that in turn beguile and entrance her audience. Behind the artifice of the mask and the arbitrary structure of an instruction, lies the messy emotional truth of loss, disappointment, or frustrated expectation. The catalyst and consequence of many of her investigations is failure. Yet her unswerving application to following the rules of her own protocols and the remarkable responses that she elicits from her protagonists, suggest what should be necessary, ethical conditions of social life.

2021

Iván ARGOTE, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Jean-Philippe DELHOMME, Bernard FRIZE, ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, Hans HARTUNG, Laurent GRASSO, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Thilo HEINZMANN, Alain JACQUET, Takashi MURAKAMI, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Claude RUTAULT, Xavier VEILHAN, Yuji UEDA

June 3 - July 31, 2021

paris

2BIS AVENUE MATIGNON 75008 PARIS

Perrotin Matignon

2020

Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Bernard FRIZE, Laurent GRASSO, Thilo HEINZMANN, KIM Chong-Hak, LEE Bae, Georges MATHIEU, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Park Seo-Bo, Maria TANIGUCHI, Xavier VEILHAN

November 24, 2020 - February 6, 2021

hong kong

807, 8/F, K11 ATELIER Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road,Tsim Sha Tsui

Floating World

Sophie CALLE, CHEN Ke, Jens FÄNGE, Bernard FRIZE, Laurent GRASSO, Thilo HEINZMANN, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, JR, Klara KRISTALOVA, Barry MCGEE, Takashi MURAKAMI, NI Youyu, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL

July 24 - August 29, 2020

Shanghai

3/F, 27 Hu Qiu Road, Huangpu District

Messenger

Sophie CALLE

July 2 - 5, 2020

paris

60 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

Prenez soin de vous

JR, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Wim DELVOYE, Bernard FRIZE, Laurent GRASSO, Hans HARTUNG, John HENDERSON, Leslie HEWITT, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Bharti KHER, Klara KRISTALOVA, Georges MATHIEU, Paola PIVI, Gabriel RICO, Xavier VEILHAN, XU ZHEN®

April 30 - June 18, 2020

Shanghai

3/F, 27 Hu Qiu Road, Huangpu District

Wonderland

2019

Sophie CALLE

February 2 - March 10, 2019

tokyo

Piramide Building, 1F, 6-6-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku

My mother, my cat, my father, in that order

2018

Sophie CALLE

October 13 - December 22, 2018

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS
10 IMPASSE SAINT CLAUDE 75003 PARIS

2 projects of Sophie Calle "Parce que" and "Souris Calle"

2017

Kathryn ANDREWS, Sophie CALLE, Leslie HEWITT, Bharti KHER, Alicja KWADE, B. Ingrid OLSON, Cornelia PARKER, Gala PORRAS-KIM, Tatiana TROUVE

June 21 - August 18, 2017

new york

130 Orchard Street

Fond Illusions

2015

GELITIN, Iván ARGOTE, Sophie CALLE, KATE ERICSON & MEL ZIEGLER, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, JR, Guy LIMONE, Gianni MOTTI, Paola PIVI

July 9 - August 21, 2015

new york

909 Madison Avenue New York

Paris Holiday

2014

Sophie CALLE

November 26, 2014 - January 10, 2015

hong kong

50 CONNAUGHT ROAD CENTRAL, 17TH FLOOR - HONG KONG

Chiho AOSHIMA, Daniel ARSHAM, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Tracey EMIN, Daniel FIRMAN, GELITIN, Laurent GRASSO, JR, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, KAWS, Bharti KHER, Klara KRISTALOVA, MR., Guy LIMONE, Ryan MCGINLEY, Takashi MURAKAMI, Prune NOURRY, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Terry RICHARDSON, Germaine RICHIER, Aya TAKANO, Xavier VEILHAN, Andy WARHOL, Marina ABRAMOVIC, Valerie BELIN, Guerrilla Girls, Alex KATZ, Annette MESSAGER, Yoko ONO, Rob PRUITT, Cindy SHERMAN, Taryn SIMON, Mickalene THOMAS, Agnès THURNAUER, Tom WESSELMANN

May 27 - June 25, 2014

paris

60 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

G I R L

curated by Pharrell Williams

2013

Sophie CALLE

November 13, 2013 - January 11, 2014

paris

10 IMPASSE SAINT CLAUDE 75003 PARIS

Dérobés

2012

Sophie CALLE

September 8 - October 27, 2012

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

Pour la dernière et pour la première fois

Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Wim DELVOYE, ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, Lionel ESTÈVE, Bernard FRIZE, Bharti KHER, KOLKOZ, Klara KRISTALOVA, Guy LIMONE, Takashi MURAKAMI, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Claude RUTAULT, Michael SAILSTORFER, Xavier VEILHAN

March 10 - April 21, 2012

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

2009

Chiho AOSHIMA, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Bernard FRIZE, GELITIN, Bharti KHER, KOLKOZ, Klara KRISTALOVA, Martin OPPEL, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Aya TAKANO, Tatiana TROUVÉ, Piotr UKLANSKI, Chris VASELL, Xavier VEILHAN, Peter ZIMMERMANN

March 14 - May 16, 2009

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

2008

Sophie CALLE

September 6 - October 14, 2008

paris

10 IMPASSE SAINT CLAUDE 75003 PARIS

Où et Quand?

2006

Sophie CALLE

September 6 - November 25, 2006

miami

True stories

2005

Sophie CALLE, Maurizio CATTELAN, Bernard FRIZE, Guy LIMONE, Jin MEYERSON, Mariko MORI, Takashi MURAKAMI, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Piotr UKLANSKI, Xavier VEILHAN, Peter ZIMMERMANN

January 15 - March 26, 2005

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

Opening of the gallery space at 76 rue de Turenne

2004

Bernard FRIZE, Daniel ARSHAM, Giuseppe GABELLONE, Takashi MURAKAMI, Martin OPPEL, Eric DUYCKAERTS, GELITIN, Peter ZIMMERMANN, Sophie CALLE, Terry RICHARDSON

December 4 - 19, 2004

miami

Inaugural exhibition

2001

Sophie CALLE

October 27 - December 1, 2001

paris

30 rue Louise Weiss 75003 Paris

Changement d'adresse
Sophie Calle 'Voir la mer' at Shibuya Crossing - Say Who, 2019

Sophie Calle 'Voir la mer' at Shibuya Crossing -...

Sophie CALLE

Opening Sophie Calle exhibition at Perrotin Tokyo

Opening Sophie Calle exhibition at Perrotin Tokyo

Sophie CALLE

Sophie Calle "Parce que" & "Souris Calle", Perrotin Paris

Sophie Calle "Parce que" & "Souris Calle",...

Sophie CALLE

Openings of Sophie Calle & Elmgreen & Dragset shows 2018

Openings of Sophie Calle & Elmgreen &...

ELMGREEN & DRAGSET

Sophie Calle "Dérobés", Perrotin Paris

Sophie Calle "Dérobés", Perrotin Paris

Sophie CALLE

podcasts

Talk between Sophie Calle & Taiki Yamanaka (ENG, JAP)

Talk between Sophie Calle and Taiki Yamanaka on the occasion of the artist's exhibitions in Japan.


Podcasts