Deep beneath the town hall in Arles, France, past some unassuming service counters and down several flights of narrow steps, the artist Sophie Calle has buried some things that she can’t bear to part with.
This year’s edition of the Rencontres, which runs through Sept. 29, is titled “Beneath the Surface,” and Calle’s contribution takes place in a labyrinthine series of underground caverns bisected by long arched balustrades.
The shadowy walkways and damp, moldy atmosphere are ideal for her project, in which she displays works from her storeroom that were damaged in a storm.
Advised by restorers to destroy them, she decided instead to give them a subterranean afterlife.
And so, the works are now “buried” in Arles, where they continue to decompose, but have not, at least, been forsaken.
Persons:
Sophie Calle, restorers, ”
Locations:
Arles, France