"To record this process, I visited places from which symbols of GDR history have been effaced. I asked passers-by and residents to describe the objects that once filled these empty spaces. I photographed their absence and replaced the missing monuments with their memories." [Calle, in German Bundestag, 2010]
The artist Sophie Calle documents how Berlin faces its history and its correlation of memory and personal identity. The installation "Die Entfernung - The Detachment" makes audiences aware of "the complex way in which we perceive reality - and to the equally complex way in which history and the present are interwoven" and "is one of the most revealing artworks on the history of inter-German relations and its contemporary afterimage" [German Bundestag, 2010]
Guides for the exhibitions Die Entfernung - The Detachment
and Talking to Strangers [PDF]
In Talking to Strangers, a documentary and performing arts by Calle, combines photography, film and text, balancing "conceptual rigour and the elements of chance brought about by including both herself and her subjects directly in the artistic process. This spirit of inclusivity is more likely to illicit feelings of intimate understanding than intellectual dispassion; Calle’s is a conceptual art born of the world, not the classroom or studio (Pellerin, 2009). The guide for Talking to Strangers suggests actions for the audience to take at the exhibition and elsewhere, alongside a dialogue by two artists, to enhance the experience at the gallery and to understand Calle's work further [Whitechapel Gallery, 2010].
German Bundestag [2010] Sophie Calle: Die Entfernung - The Detachment. [Online] http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/artandhistory/art/artists/calle/index.html [22/05/2010]
Pellerin, A. (2009) Sophie Calle: Talking to Stragers. [Online] http://www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/5539/1/Sophie_Calle_Talking_to_Strangers [22/05/2010]
Whitechapel Gallery [2010] Conversations and Actions. [Online] http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/downloads/calle.pdf [22/05/2010]
Vukadin, A. (2009) Sophie Calle: Talking to Strangers. [Online] http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2009-sophie-calle-whitechapel-gallery/1976 [22/05/2010]
