ソフィー・キャルの作品入門ガイド

Sophie Calle straddles photography, literature and psychology, her language keenly attuned to the nuance of human feeling. The French conceptual artist inhabits a unique space in the creative world. She is highly recognisable for her multifaceted, unique projects, in which her own life and fleeting connections with those around her are drawn out into complex, humorous combinations of image, text, and installation. But she somehow avoids the overexposure that defines many artists who have reached her level of fame. 

Born in 1953, Calle has previously said she became an artist for her father, a doctor and keen collector of pop art. The roots of her exploratory and at times boundary-overstepping practice can be seen in one of her earliest creative endeavours, when she followed a new stranger each day as they went about their lives. Her work since has taken her undercover as a maid in Venice; seen her pick apart a failed love letter with 107 other women; and led to her filming her mother’s final moments. 

This summer, her solo show Êtes-vous triste? (Are You Sad?) at Mrac Occitanie in Sérignan brings together more than 20 years of work. It is named after a question that the artist poses at the end of La Visite médicale (The Medical Visit), which is part of her Autobiographies series of photographs and short personal texts. As the show opens, AnOther explores the defining aspects of her iconic, richly emotive practice.

1. Language and storytelling are central to her work

The written word is just as important as the visual content in Calle’s work. Words and language are used to probe the psyche, highlight intricacies of human relationships, and let viewers (or readers) into the artist’s world. In her confessional 2003 book Exquisite Pain, she shares her own heartbreak with strangers, inviting them to retell the worst moment from their lives in exchange. Calle is also interested in pre-existing texts. She delved into archive personal ads in the newspaper Le Chasseur Français in an attempt to define the aspects that men really wish for in a woman; since the 1800s, she discovered a move from money to virginity, ‘sweetness’, and finally, geographical proximity.   

2. Love and romance are also woven through many pieces

Love in all its forms can be found in Calle’s work. For perhaps her most famous piece, Take Care of Yourself, she invited 107 women to analyse a letter written by her own partner breaking up with her, through the lens of their professional lives. This potentially heartbreaking moment of being broken up with by email is turned into a funny and poignant point of connection between these women, who pull it apart through psychiatric, legal, and creative means. This work was part of her French Pavilion presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2007, alongside an exploration of familial love; her 11-minute video Couldn’t Capture Death fixates on her mother’s final moments as she dies in bed. 

3. She has tackled the patriarchal roots of psychoanalysis 

Many of Calle’s pieces plumb the depths of the psyche, and she has occasionally confronted the roots of psychoanalysis head-on. In 1999, she took Freud’s place in his former home and museum in north London, showing photographs of herself copying his poses and clothing. She emulated his collecting style, placing pink text next to items from her own life, and adding personal interventions next to his highly prized objects. The installation spoke to female desire and embodied experience, humorously playing with Freud’s own assertions and misunderstandings about women’s sexual lives. She also installed a wedding dress on his famous couch. 

4. The artist once worked as a hotel maid as part of her practice

Calle’s dual roles as observer and participant are intricately entangled. This was especially present in 1981, when she took on the role of a hotel maid in Venice, working undercover for three weeks. She carried a camera and tape recorder in her mop bucket, documenting the belongings and mess left behind in each room when guests went out. The resulting project, The Hotel, is as invasive as it is fascinating, as Calle rifles through wallets, photographs the contents of bins, and inventories clothing items that hang in the wardrobe. This series of images and texts is now available in book form, published by Siglio.   

5. She remains in powerful control of her own image

While Calle’s personal approach to art-making makes it seem like we know everything there is to know about her, she is controlled in how much she releases. Her recent major US survey, Overshare at the Walker Art Museum, explored the tantalising line that she takes with her audience, and the gendered cliches associated with the act of ‘oversharing’. “I am both very much about oversharing but, at the same time, not at all,” she said when the show opened. “I am not on social media; I don’t have Instagram or Facebook. So, I am saying a lot less than anyone who is writing about what they had for dinner last night, or where, or with whom. There are a lot of people who think that they know me, but that is completely false.”

Êtes-vous triste? (Are You Sad?) by Sophie Calle is on show at Mrac Occitanie in Sérignan until 21 September 2025. 

Sophie Calle straddles photography, literature and psychology, her language keenly attuned to the nuance of human feeling. The French conceptual artist inhabits a unique space in the creative world. She is highly recognisable for her multifaceted, unique projects, in which her own life and fleeting connections with those around her are drawn out into complex, humorous combinations of image, text, and installation. But she somehow avoids the overexposure that defines many artists who have reached her level of fame. 

Born in 1953, Calle has previously said she became an artist for her father, a doctor and keen collector of pop art. The roots of her exploratory and at times boundary-overstepping practice can be seen in one of her earliest creative endeavours, when she followed a new stranger each day as they went about their lives. Her work since has taken her undercover as a maid in Venice; seen her pick apart a failed love letter with 107 other women; and led to her filming her mother’s final moments. 

This summer, her solo show Êtes-vous triste? (Are You Sad?) at Mrac Occitanie in Sérignan brings together more than 20 years of work. It is named after a question that the artist poses at the end of La Visite médicale (The Medical Visit), which is part of her Autobiographies series of photographs and short personal texts. As the show opens, AnOther explores the defining aspects of her iconic, richly emotive practice.

1. Language and storytelling are central to her work

The written word is just as important as the visual content in Calle’s work. Words and language are used to probe the psyche, highlight intricacies of human relationships, and let viewers (or readers) into the artist’s world. In her confessional 2003 book Exquisite Pain, she shares her own heartbreak with strangers, inviting them to retell the worst moment from their lives in exchange. Calle is also interested in pre-existing texts. She delved into archive personal ads in the newspaper Le Chasseur Français in an attempt to define the aspects that men really wish for in a woman; since the 1800s, she discovered a move from money to virginity, ‘sweetness’, and finally, geographical proximity.   

2. Love and romance are also woven through many pieces

Love in all its forms can be found in Calle’s work. For perhaps her most famous piece, Take Care of Yourself, she invited 107 women to analyse a letter written by her own partner breaking up with her, through the lens of their professional lives. This potentially heartbreaking moment of being broken up with by email is turned into a funny and poignant point of connection between these women, who pull it apart through psychiatric, legal, and creative means. This work was part of her French Pavilion presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2007, alongside an exploration of familial love; her 11-minute video Couldn’t Capture Death fixates on her mother’s final moments as she dies in bed. 

3. She has tackled the patriarchal roots of psychoanalysis 

Many of Calle’s pieces plumb the depths of the psyche, and she has occasionally confronted the roots of psychoanalysis head-on. In 1999, she took Freud’s place in his former home and museum in north London, showing photographs of herself copying his poses and clothing. She emulated his collecting style, placing pink text next to items from her own life, and adding personal interventions next to his highly prized objects. The installation spoke to female desire and embodied experience, humorously playing with Freud’s own assertions and misunderstandings about women’s sexual lives. She also installed a wedding dress on his famous couch. 

4. The artist once worked as a hotel maid as part of her practice

Calle’s dual roles as observer and participant are intricately entangled. This was especially present in 1981, when she took on the role of a hotel maid in Venice, working undercover for three weeks. She carried a camera and tape recorder in her mop bucket, documenting the belongings and mess left behind in each room when guests went out. The resulting project, The Hotel, is as invasive as it is fascinating, as Calle rifles through wallets, photographs the contents of bins, and inventories clothing items that hang in the wardrobe. This series of images and texts is now available in book form, published by Siglio.   

5. She remains in powerful control of her own image

While Calle’s personal approach to art-making makes it seem like we know everything there is to know about her, she is controlled in how much she releases. Her recent major US survey, Overshare at the Walker Art Museum, explored the tantalising line that she takes with her audience, and the gendered cliches associated with the act of ‘oversharing’. “I am both very much about oversharing but, at the same time, not at all,” she said when the show opened. “I am not on social media; I don’t have Instagram or Facebook. So, I am saying a lot less than anyone who is writing about what they had for dinner last night, or where, or with whom. There are a lot of people who think that they know me, but that is completely false.”

Êtes-vous triste? (Are You Sad?) by Sophie Calle is on show at Mrac Occitanie in Sérignan until 21 September 2025.