09/07/2009

Take Care of Yourself by Sophie Calle








Take Care of Yourself is the latest project by Sophie Calle where she invites over hundred women to analyze a break-up letter that she had just received from a man. The artist asked participants to “analyze the letter from a professional perspective. The grammarian would have to speak about grammar”.
Further she explains “I wanted to play with the dryness of professional vocabulary. I didn’t want the women expressing sentiment for me.”
104 women, two puppets and one parrot participated in this project. All the interpretations, whether expressed or by comments superimposed onto the letter, or even movement or music, will be part of the exhibition opening in September at SESC Pompeia in Sao Paulo.
Beautiful photographs shown here are just a hint of what will be there. Among all the participants is Laurie Anderson (on the photograph below) which I'm discovering at the moment . I would love to see or hear her interpretation!

The whole idea is... I would say, very feminine.
I find it really moving how Calle tries to deal with her loss by stripping the message out of any emotional load by reducing it to a piece of text, simply a sequence of words.
You can see more on the artist's web site.

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