Sophie Calle Builds a Tomb in Provence for Confession Performance

Sophie Calle's ongoing project "The Dead End" arrives at Château La Coste in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Provence, as its third iteration after Geneva and New York, and its first in France. On July 21, 2018, Calle will perform by receiving visitors' confessions and secrets in a forest near the estate, transcribing them onto paper and burying them in a tomb she designed, complete with a headstone and obelisk. This ritual, which began on July 21, 2018, in Geneva's cemetery and continued in Brooklyn, will be repeated annually. The exhibition comprises two parts: inside the castle, "Série Noire" pairs Calle's early cemetery photographs with recent works from "Ma mère, mon chat, mon père"; in the Renzo Piano Pavilion (opened 2017), "Exquisite Pain" is displayed, a work divided into "Before Pain" and "After Pain" that recounts a difficult personal moment. Calle's practice consistently explores themes of loss, separation, and intimacy through obsessive organization of objects, videos, and texts. The show runs until August 15, 2018.