
Sophie Calle
The Sleepers - Jean-Yves Le Gavre, 1980

I asked people to give me a few hours of their sleep. To come and sleep in my bed. To let …

Sophie Calle—whose practice often incorporates writing, photography, installation, film, and more to explore intimacy, identity, interpersonal relationships, obsession, and vulnerability—could easily be considered one of the most significant Conceptual artists of the second half of the 20th century. In works from the 1970s and ’80s, Calle took on the role of detective: In Suite Vénitienne (1980), the artist followed a relative stranger—someone she had met briefly at a party—all the way from Paris to Venice, secretly documenting his whereabouts and eventually publishing her findings and writings in a book; in The Hotel (1981), Calle secured a job as a hotel maid so that she could methodically go through the belongings of guests and document them in photographs. In 2007, Calle represented France at the 52nd Venice Biennale with the exhibition “Take Care of Yourself,” which then traveled to some 20 museums around the world. Calle has had major retrospectives at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Whitechapel Gallery in London, and her work is held in countless esteemed museum collections.


I asked people to give me a few hours of their sleep. To come and sleep in my bed. To let themselves be looked at and photographed. To answer questions. To each participant I suggested an eight hour stay. --- I don't know him. A common friend suggested I call him up. He agrees to come on Satyrdayn April 7th, from …

Sophie Calle—whose practice often incorporates writing, photography, installation, film, and more to explore intimacy, identity, interpersonal relationships, obsession, and vulnerability—could easily be considered one of the most significant Conceptual artists of the second half of the 20th century. In works from the 1970s and ’80s, Calle took on the role of detective: In Suite Vénitienne (1980), the artist followed a relative stranger—someone she had met briefly at a party—all the way from Paris to Venice, secretly documenting his whereabouts and eventually publishing her findings and writings in a book; in The Hotel (1981), Calle secured a job as a hotel maid so that she could methodically go through the belongings of guests and document them in photographs. In 2007, Calle represented France at the 52nd Venice Biennale with the exhibition “Take Care of Yourself,” which then traveled to some 20 museums around the world. Calle has had major retrospectives at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Whitechapel Gallery in London, and her work is held in countless esteemed museum collections.