|
Indepth Arts News:
"The Detachment, Double Blind"
2001-04-11 until 2001-07-15
Helsinki City Art Museum
Helsinki, ,
FI
French artist Sophie Calle (born 1957) is one of the best-known names in contemporary
conceptual art. Her exhibition at the Helsinki City Art Museum - Tennis Palace galleries comprises 10 photographs taken in Berlin from the series The Detachment (1996) and the
video work Double Blind (1992), which was made in collaboration with Gregory Shephard.
The Detachment is a document of the change that has taken place in Germany in the wake of
its reunification. It is a series of photographs taken at the sites of monuments that have been
removed and of the emptiness that remains. She has also interviewed local residents and
asked about their sentiments, special relationship with the monuments and statues, and the
emotions and thoughts caused by their removal. These words, documented together with the
images, are an account of longing and sorrow, disgust and victory and, most importantly, of
the importance of remembering. The people met by Calle lived in a particular location set
apart by these statues and symbols. Their removal altered the scale of these locations and
emphasized the presence of what had been made invisible.
Double Blind is a road movie documenting a journey across the United States made in a
run-down Cadillac by a couple - Calle and Shephard - who are almost complete strangers to
one another. Along the way they visit for example Bruce Naumans home in the Midwest.
Both carry a video camera to film each other on the road, in motels, peoples homes and in
the American landscape.
Related Links:
| | 
|
