Sophie Calle

Born in Paris in 1953, Sophie Calle is an artist who lives and works in Paris. A major figure in French contemporary art, she is known as a photographer and video artist whose work, both conceptual and literary, displaces the intimate into the public sphere, while playing with the boundaries between art and private life. Indeed, his first artistic adventures were performances that took place in his everyday life. In 1979, the artist invited twenty people to sleep in her bed, and in 1980, she decided to follow a stranger to Venice. Sophie Calle's work is based on a powerful narrative that evokes themes of absence, lack and disappearance, as evidenced by the series Prenez soin de vous (Take care of yourself). In 2004, the Centre Pompidou devoted a retrospective to her, making her a key artist on the French contemporary scene. Following this, Sophie Calle was invited to represent France at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, and went on to make a name for herself around the world. In 2022, the Musée d'Orsay devoted an exhibition to her entitled Les fantômes d'Orsay, and her work was honored at the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States.