Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle has given her own existence an important place in her work. The documentary manner in which she presents her work suggests a high degree of factualness. Precisely where fact and fiction merge is difficult for the viewer to ascertain. The connection between art and reality that Calle seeks can be light and poetic, or it can have a more dramatic undercurrent. In her works she makes us participants in this; at the same time she maintains a distance and leaves room for the viewer’s own interpretation. Acts that she carries out in order to cope with life are more recognizable and less personal than the diary-like character of her work suggests. Calle’s work Où et Quand (2005-2006) came about through her collaboration with the clairvoyant Maud Kristen. Calle asked Kristen to predict her future so that she ‘could go face it and be done with it quickly.’ Berck is the photographic account of the seaside resort in northern France, to which the tarot cards sent Calle on 17 May 2005.