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Sophie Calle

Ecrivain public / Public letter writer, Rafaèle Decarpigny, from the series Prenez soin de vous (Take Care of Yourself)

2007

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Sophie Calle began making conceptual photo-based work in the early 1980s. Her complex and multifaceted practice often involves staging aspects of her own life as the subject of her artworks. "Ecrivain public / Public letter writer, Rafaèle Decarpigny," a combination of a photograph and a handwritten letter, is one of 107 video and photographic portraits that make up Calle’s project "Prenez soin de vous." The project takes its title from the closing line of an e-mail sent from her ex-lover breaking off their relationship. Calle asked 107 women to respond to the e-mail according to their line of work—criminologist, anthropologist, intelligence officer, clown, actress, and, in this case, public letter writer. In "Ecrivain public," Rafaèle Decarpigny responds as if she had been commissioned to professionally write a public reply. The text functions as a kind of masquerade—it reveals only to hold back—for it is not Calle’s own response that we receive, nor what Decarpigny’s response would be had the break-up happened to her. The photograph also follows this dynamic, showing Decarpigny in the intimate moment of reading the letter in a public stairwell, observed by a passing woman in a burqa—another thematic instance of the play between concealing and revealing. A surveillance camera along the top edge of the photograph similarly echoes the linguistic doubling of the letter by reversing the viewer’s position as a voyeur of this scene. [Exhibition brochure text, 2010]

  • Artist Sophie Calle (French, b. 1953)
  • Title Ecrivain public / Public letter writer, Rafaèle Decarpigny, from the series Prenez soin de vous (Take Care of Yourself)
  • Date 2007
  • Medium Color photograph and text
  • Edition description 2/3 + 1 AP
  • Dimensions framed | Photograph, 44 1/2 x 55 1/16 x 1 1/2 in.
    framed | Text, 20 7/8 x 20 7/8 x 1 1/2 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, Parsons Fund, and with funds from Helen Kornblum, 2007
  • Object number WU 2007.0002

Focus on Photography: Recent Acquisitions
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/07/2010 - 07/26/2010

Atrium Winter 2008–Summer 2009
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 10/28/2008

Focus on Photography: Recent Acquisitions 2010

11/15/2007, received at KAM 4/10/2008
Arndt & Partner, Berlin

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

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