SHOWROOM: SOPHIE CALLE

Wilson Saplana Gallery presents a rare selection of works by the world-renowned French artist Sophie Calle.

Since Sophie Calle’s debut in the 1970s, she has played with her audience by using herself as the starting point for her work. Rooted in photography, she explores her own stories—about love, motherhood, her relationship with her “dominant” mother, failed marriages, and much more. She works boldly, sparing neither herself nor those closest to her. Sophie Calle is admired worldwide for her self-staging, and in this way, her works have “caught up” with themselves and now resonate with our individualized contemporary world. Calle is in a class of her own, as all norms and societal constructs are subjected to critical, artistic, and humorous scrutiny.

At the gallery, we are showing works from the Autobiographies series, her longest and still ongoing project, which traces the course of her life. The two-part works combine photography and text, with Calle transforming stories from her “real life” into poetic and humorous reflections on identity and memory.

From April 13–19, we will exclusively present one of Sophie Calle’s most iconic works: Chromatic Diet. In Paul Auster’s 1992 novel Leviathan, Calle served as the “inspiration” for the character Maria Turner. In the novel, Maria follows a Chromatic Diet for several weeks—a diet Calle herself later experimented with, resulting in the work of the same name, now on view in the gallery. The piece documents a six-day diet in which each day is dedicated to a single color, and all meals consist solely of foods in that color. The carefully arranged meals are presented in square photographs alongside a simple menu, creating a combination of humor, ritual, and visual poetry.

To mark this occasion, we are hosting a special Chromatic Diet Week. Throughout the week, guests are invited to visit the gallery and experience the color of the day through colorful drinks and snacks.