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homosexual and that I’m going to attack her. She decides to stay; nevertheless the idea of going to bed
repels her…She says she’s tired but that it’s out of the question that she go to sleep’ (p. 36).
8 Of course, this applies both ways as Calle invited strangers into her home and bedroom. However,
allowing oneself to fall asleep in the presence of a stranger is a particularly trusting gesture.
Incidentally, some of the participants were friends of Calle’s, or family members; the twentieth sleeper
was her brother, and another of the sleepers was Calle’s mother, who in fact became a regular
participant in her subsequent art projects.
9 Hehama Guralnik, ‘Sophie Calle: True Stories’ in True Stories, Sophie Calle (The Helena Rubenstein
Pavilion for Contemporary Art: Tel Aviv Art Museum, 1996) pp. 209-218 (p. 210)
10 Susan Sontag, On Photography. (London: Penguin Books, 1979), p. 14.
11 See Daisy Garnett, ‘In bed with Sophie Calle: The artist’s parody of Brigitte Bardot in ‘Days lived under
the Sign of B, C and W.’’ The Daily Telegraph: Appointment with an artwork, 15 August (2005).
12 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: the birth of the prison. (London: Penguin Books, 1975), p. 171.
13 Names are also given in the text. Although we can never be certain if these are genuine, there is no
suggestion that they are false. Sometimes Calle will provide a first and second name for her participants.
But on other occasions – perhaps by request – she is more discreet, referring to a participant by using a
first name and an initial for the surname, such as ‘Daniel D.’ or ‘Patrick X.’ (Calle, 2003, pp. 148-149).
14 Whitney Chadwick, ‘Three artists/Three women: Orlan, Annette Messager and Sophie Calle,’
Contemporary French Studies and Francophone Studies, 4:1 (2000), 111-118. (p. 113).
15 W. J. T. Mitchell, ‘There Are No Visual Media,’ Journal of Visual Culture, 4:2 (2005), 257-266 (p. 263).
16 Nigel Saint, ‘Space and Absence in Sophie Calle’s Suite Vénitienne and Disparations,’ L’Esprite Créateur,
51: 1 (2011), 125-138. (p. 126)
17 Walter Benjamin, ‘Notes (III)’ in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 2 Part I, 1927-1930, trans. by
Rodney Livingstone, ed. by Michael Jennings with Marcus Bullock, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith.
Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 285.
18 Nicola Homer, ‘Sophie Calle: Talking to Strangers,’ Studio International, 23 November (2009). Available
from: [Accessed
18/05/13].
19 Hannah Duguid, ‘Up close and (too) personal: A Sophie Calle retrospective,’ The Independent (Monday,
26 October, 2009). Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/art/features/up-close-and-too-personal-retrospective-1809346.html
[Accessed:
10/01/2013].
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