A Testimonial (of Sorts)

Sophie Calle’s a toi de faire ma mignonne at Musée Picasso

In the hip and dynamic Marais district of Paris lies the somewhat hidden and more classical-looking Picasso Museum. However, between the months of October 2023 to January of this year, it houses no Picasso works, but a site-wide, all-consuming exhibition of a testimonial to him on the 50th anniversary of his death. French conceptual artist Sophie Calle (b. 1953), gave the show the title ‘’A toi de faire ma mignonne’’, translating to ‘’up to you my darling’’ - a word play on the museum offering her carte-blanche for the second time to organise a show. She hesitated in 2018 on the basis of ‘’not [being] a Picasso expert. I had nothing to bring to the table, it seemed,” Calle tells ArtNews. She accepted the 2023 show. 

The show spans three floors, taking up all the space in the building - previously known as Hotel Salé - and although it is a tribute to Picasso, the show feels more personal to Calle. As you move up to the upper floors, the sense that this is a show that pays tribute to Picasso is more noticeably disparate, I find. This feels in line with how Calle works with the space for this commission; the classic 17th century Parisian architecture goes hand in hand with the grandeur of Picasso’s works. On the first floor, Calle’s more fanciful works can be seen - these being the ones based on Picasso’s body of work. As you ascend toward the beautifully lit top floor, you feel the work getting slightly more claustrophobic and delving deeper into Calle’s troubled psyche. It feels as though we stray further away from Picasso and get lost in Calle’s personal relationships and traumas. The position taken throughout the exhibition is a ‘’deliberately retrospective character’’; Through her unique visual language that is rarely seen in her contemporaries, Calle succeeds in making herself felt present in all the works about the Spanish artist. All but three of his works have been removed from the eponymous museum upon Calle’s request. She tells Le Monde France writer Emmanuelle Jardonnet; "the Picassos are almost all in the basement,". As I walk up the stairs I think to myself, this exhibition definitely feels like more of a Sophie Calle solo show than a tribute to Picasso. 

On the first floor, upon entry we see a drawing of Calle’s from when she was six - to which her grandmother responded by saying there was a Picasso in the family. You walk around the space trying to understand Calle’s visual style. To those who are not familiar with her work, the show might feel confusing and scattered. Calle draws inspiration from anything and everything without feeling the need to fit her works into a specific theme for this show. Her only requirement seems to be that her works be about her personal experiences, and she manages to somehow connect them to Picasso’s life and works. However these connections are not evident without reading all the press releases and explanations. For some, these explanations aren’t even enough - or present. They are also only written in French, leaving non-speakers in the dark. 

The first few rooms on the ground floor relate to Picasso more than others. In her work ’Les Picassos confinés,’; inspired by her time spent in the museum during lockdown, she covers up many famous paintings in brown wrapping paper making the audience think about the worth of these works worth millions. These works are reminiscent of Walter Price’s ‘’paintings’’ in his 2024 show ‘’Pearl Lines’’ at Modern Art Bury St. which he has covered up with brown duct tape. 

In another work, Calle embroiders the descriptions of bigger pieces on loan to private galleries and collectors as told by the museum staff; this room is where Picasso is present the most. Compared to his revered work, Calle’s interpretations feel light-hearted and fun. Although Calle claims that she ‘’imagined as though Picasso was giving [her] permission to move in and step up’’, I have a suspicion his fragile narcissist ego would not be extremely pleased with Calle’s quirky works taking a look at some of his most emblematic works, and then becoming something completely other.

On the upper floor, we are met with a few very busy rooms filled with miscellaneous objects ranging from silverware to paintings to furniture to taxidermied animals. Here, we lose all sign of Picasso. We’re invited into the personal space of Calle. In one of the rooms, her deceased mother’s belongings alongside her photo (taking pictures of which are prohibited) and a sculpture resembling her tomb can be seen. In another, all of her belongings are present. The walls are upholstered with red velvet and we are confronted by visually overwhelming maximalism, contradicting Picasso’s oftentimes more two dimensional and cubist style. The room is meant to resemble an auction house, based on her idea of having no family and her curiosity regarding what she would be leaving behind in this world if she were to fake her death. Reading further into the press release, Calle loosely ties this work to Picasso; ‘’Picasso wished to show what laid behind his paintings, I wanted to tell the stories behind some of my personal belongings.”. Other than this abrupt explanation, there is no visual connection, nor is there obvious conceptual relation to any of Picasso’s specific works - or his body of work in general. 

To any other artist, putting on an exhibition about Picasso would no doubt involve having his works present. Calle’s unique visually narrational language makes for a refreshing exhibition with a wide range of her deeply personal and sometimes very emotional works - while being minimally connected to Pablo Picasso on his 50th death anniversary. Being in Musée Picasso, a space usually - albeit understandably - dominated by the namesake, the touch of a female artıst, which inputs specific emotion and experience into this space, which are new for it. I enjoyed this show immensely and found it invigorating to be in the museum in the presence of the genius, Calle, especially enjoying how the show became about her rather than a testimonial to Picasso.

User: Yaz Kocaciklioglu
16 May 2024