Sophie Calle Empties the Musée Picasso for an Eerie Exhibition in Which Both Artists’ Presences Haunt the Institution
Sophie Calle Empties the Musée Picasso for an Eerie Exhibition
Sophie Calle recently decided she would not let Pablo Picasso haunt her. So, for a new exhibition, she had Paris’s Musée Picasso remove 90 percent of its collection, and make way for her latest project, featuring the better part of her home in what is perhaps her most ambitious exhibition to date, which opens this week.
The Marais-based institution had first reached out to Calle, one of France’s most famous artists, known for conceptual projects that involve following and photographing strangers or friends and then writing extensively about it, about a possible collaboration in 2018. Calle, however, did not see what she might be able to offer the museum at the time. “I am not a Picasso expert. I had nothing to bring to the table, it seemed,” she told ARTnews over the summer as preparations for the exhibition were nearing their final stages.