Missing
June 29–August 20, 2017
Curated by Ars Citizen
Sophie Calle Film Screenings: June 22, 7pm
Q&A with Sophie Calle and Lawrence Rinder
BAMPFA, UC Berkeley, CA
My mother, my cat, my father, (…): June 23–August 26
Sophie Calle: My mother, my cat, my father, in that order
FraenkelLAB, San Francisco, CA
Book signing of Sophie Calle: June 25, 6pm
City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, CA
Artist Talk: Sophie Calle: June 28, 5pm
Introduced by Evelyne Jouanno
Cowell Theater, FMCAC, San Francisco, CA
Sophie Calle: an Anthology: July 3, 7pm
Featuring No Sex Last Night, Untitled & Contacts
Roxie Theater, San Francisco, CA
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture presents Sophie Calle Missing curated by Ars Citizen. Exhibited in site-responsive installations across the waterfront campus, Missing is a thoughtful survey of the artist’s most prominent works, each exploring intimate moments.
Missing takes a comprehensive approach to Calle’s work and recurring exploration, reflecting on absence and its relationship with other universal themes she addresses: disappearance, rupture, abandonment, loss. The exhibition is presented in four venues across the campus, each selected to complement Calle’s works, described here by the artist:
True Stories, 1988-present
“Several objects that hold a sentimental place in my life, and that I have used for my autobiographical narratives.”
Take Care of Yourself, 2004-2007
“I received an email telling me it was over. I didn’t know how to respond. It was almost as if it hadn’t been meant for me. It ended with the words: ‘Take care of yourself.’ And so I did. I asked 107 women, chosen for their profession or skills, to interpret this letter. To analyze it, comment on it, dance it, sing it. Dissect it. Exhaust it. Understand it for me. Answer for me. It was a way of taking the time to break up. A way to taking care of myself.”
Rachel Monique, 2007-2014
“She was successively called Rachel, Monique, Szyndler, Calle, Pagliero, Gonthier, Sindler. (…) Her life did not appear in my work, and that annoyed her. When I set up my camera at the foot of the bed where she was dying—I wanted to be present to hear her last words, and was afraid that she would pass away in my absence—she exclaimed, ‘At Last!’”
Voir la mer, 2011
“In Istanbul, a city surrounded by the sea, I met people who had never seen it. I filmed their first time.”
The Last Image, 2010
“I went to Istanbul. I spoke to blind people, most of whom had lost their sight suddenly. I asked them to describe the last thing they saw.”
Though a French national, Calle has long had a close relationship with the Bay Area and has spent intervals living in Bolinas, where she started her carrer in the late 1970s. Sophie Calle has exhibited extensively around the globe since then.
In concert with the exhibit, Ars Citizen is curating parallel programs in partnership with leading Bay Area institutions. For details, please visit arscitizen.org/missing.html
Tickets for Missing are complimentary and can be reserved at fortmason.org/missing
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture
A national pioneer in the reuse of decommissioned military installations, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture has been host to a lively mix of arts, educational, and cultural programming. With a long history as an arts destination, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture is now focused on reinvigorating its programming to better engage the Bay Area creative community.
fortmason.org
Ars Citizen
Ars Citizen is an independent non-profit committed to advancing the production and diffusion of contemporary art. Ars Citizen brings the excellence of international contemporary artists to local leaders of culture, education, and innovation. It aims to commission, and promote some of the most significant works of our time, while generating thoughtfully conceived related programming, including exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and publications.
Media Contacts
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture
Nick Kinsey, nick [at] fortmason.org, T +1 415-345-7530
Ars Citizen
JiaJing Liu, press [at] arscitizen.org, T +1 718-813-9869
The project has received the support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Grants for the Arts, Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, The Consulate General of France in San Francisco, Fraenkel Gallery, Paula Cooper Gallery, Galerie Perrotin, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, City Lights Bookstore, Roxie Theatre, Eleanor Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola Winery, and Paxton Gate.
