Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle
Calle in 2015
Born9 October 1953 (1953-10-09) (age 71)
Paris, France
Known forConceptual art, installation art
Sophie Calle (left) and Alexandra Cohen

Sophie Calle (born 9 October 1953)[1] is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist.[2] Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like tendency to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. Her photographic work often includes panels of text of her own writing.[3]

Since 2005, Calle has taught as a professor of film and photography at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. She has lectured at the University of California, San Diego in the Visual Arts Department.[4] She has also taught at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Exhibitions of Calle's work took place at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;[2] Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia;[5] Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris;[6] Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium; Videobrasil, SESC Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil; Whitechapel Gallery, London;[2] and the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, Netherlands.[7] She represented France at the Venice Biennale in 2007.[2]

In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for her publication My All (Actes Sud, 2016).[8][9] In 2019 she was the recipient of the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship.

  1. ^ Tate. "Sophie Calle born 1953". Tate. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d O'Hagan, Sean (4 March 2017). "Strangers, secrets and desire: the surreal world of Sophie Calle". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  3. ^ Hillstrom, Laurie Collier (1999). Contemporary Women Artists. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press. pp. 107–110. ISBN 978-1-55862-372-9.
  4. ^ Sophie Calle. 2009 Russel Lecture. University of California, San Diego. Visual Arts Department and MCASD. 15 January 2009
  5. ^ Program of the festival Centre Pompidou in the State Hermitage Museum. Hermitage 20/21 Project. October/November 2010
  6. ^ Sophie Calle. Public Places – Private Space. Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris. 7 March 2001– 28 June 2001
  7. ^ Sophie Calle. Questionnaire. Archived 23 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine Frieze Magazine. June–August 2009
  8. ^ "Deutsche Börse Photograpohy Foundation Prize 2017". The Photographers' Gallery. Archived from the original on 9 January 2017.
  9. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (1 March 2017). "'The cat in the coffin almost steals the show' ... the Deutsche Börse photography prize". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 March 2017.