Sophie Calle
Since 1979, Sophie Calle has been turning her life into her work, a multiform work, incorporating many artistic disciplines, which nevertheless constitutes a fascinating autobiography, always in motion, always under construction. Surrounded by all those who share her adventures, people or objects, photos or naturalized animals, she imagines moments of sharing with diverse and varied publics that she invites to exhibitions, installations and performances as well as film projections. As diverse as they are, her projects all have their origins in her experiences, as a woman and an artist, in her stories as well as those of others. Brilliantly mastering the different image and narration techniques, she queries artistic practices without any compromises, without any stance, with a seemingly limitless curiosity. Having become famous for tailing unknown people, who sometimes took her quite far from the places where they met, she can also settle down for a sleepless night on the fourth level of the Eiffel Tower, where visitors are called on to tell her their stories to keep her awake. Each experience results in a particular artistic object, always exacting, which, inevitably provokes and disturbs the spectator invited to share an intimacy that is publicly exposed. Welcomed throughout the world, Sophie Calle came to the Festival d'Avignon for the first time in 2012 with Rachel, Monique, a performance-exhibition devoted to her recently deceased mother.