French conceptual art shows the blind spots: Sophie Calle exhibits at Louisiana
The French conceptual artist Sophie Calle is exhibiting at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art with works that explore human vulnerability and our ideas of beauty.
Blind people also appreciate beauty
If you are blind, how do you experience what is beautiful? How can you appreciate something so closely connected to sight? This is what the French conceptual artist and photographer Sophie Calle set out to explore.
In the exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, you can see the work The Blind (1986). Explore the many portraits of blind people and read the short texts accompanying each image. In them, the sitters themselves answer the question: What is beauty to you? Some have been told that the colour white is beautiful; others have seen their beautiful children in dreams.
Read more about the exhibition with Sophie Calle at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Conceptual art with fixed rules produces the best ideas
When Sophie Calle works with art, she always sets strict rules for herself. For some this might seem limiting, but for Sophie Calle this is where she finds her freedom.
In one of the artist’s well-known works, Suite Vénetienne (1980), she follows a man with her camera on a journey to Venice. The rules are clear: he must not know that she is following him, and she trails him with a camera and a wig. As is often the case when Sophie Calle exhibits, the photographs are accompanied by text. In the tension between the images of the man and the text, which actively reflects on the project, Suite Vénetienne becomes a compelling investigation of surveillance and privacy.
Find more information about the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
The French artist Sophie Calle exhibits at Louisiana
Sophie Calle is a French photographer, writer and conceptual artist. Over five decades she has left her mark on contemporary art and will exhibit in 2026 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
The artist was born in Paris in 1953 and is particularly interested in sociological and autobiographical investigations in her works. Sophie Calle’s artistic approach involves using herself and others in ways that expose and examine human vulnerability.