Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle Synopsis

A catalogue raisonné of never-before-seen abandoned projects by the artist Sophie Calle.

'I hate things being finished. Death is final… Life is in the 'almost finished'.' - Pablo Picasso

'But when everything comes to an end, what will become of the ideas that went nowhere, that were biding their time in boxes, in coffins? Before we die, we must catalogue our attempts, our first drafts, our abandoned projects, and give life to our intentions. It's a way of putting an end to it.' - Sophie Calle

Accompanying her exhibition 'A toi de faire, ma mignonne' at the Musée Picasso in Paris, Sophie Calle invites the reader to explore a catalogue raisonné of her unfinished ideas. These accounts, each stamped with a red verdict giving the reason that they were not completed, offer a parallel to her True Stories, a collection that has been regularly reissued since 1994. In this landmark publication, which reveals the hidden aspects of an artistic practice spanning decades, the main themes of her work come to light: coincidence, chance encounters, and incompletion as an ending in and of itself; and trying and failing as the necessary byproduct of the artistic act.