“Sophie Calle Something Missing” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

It’s been a few years since the exhibit, but I still can’t understand why the Brooklyn Museum allowed a stand-up comedian from Netflix to curate a show about how much he hates Pablo Picasso. Some will probably disagree with me, but I don’t think internet popularity provides enough of a qualification to try to take down one of the greatest artists of all time. Should we allow MrBeast make a video essay if Federico Fellini is it overrated? I would sooner read Hawk Tuah’s withered dissertation Virginia Woolf.

Sophie Calle (b. 1953), on the other hand, is eminently qualified to dissect Picasso, and he does so in “Sophie Calle: Something Missing?”, a new exhibit filling the entire west wing at the Louisiana Museum. Picassos in closing– her work that appeared around the Musée Picasso in Paris at that particular time in world history when, like our faces, works were covered with rudimentary veils to protect them from unseen forces – is one of seven series presented at Humlebæk. In total, the show includes more than 300 individual pieces in photographs, text and video, covering almost 40 years of work.

The blind (1986) was central to its acquisition at the Picasso Museum in 2023. In this early series, Calle asked 23 people who had been born blind what their image of beauty was. She establishes her format of pairing words with images and immediately demonstrates how effective it is. Blind no. 4 (1986) emphasizes the answer “Green is beautiful. Because every time I like something, I’m told it’s green.” This is paired with a framed bar photo that will shock you with its ordinariness. You’ll be looking for more there, wondering if our ability to see might be its own kind of disadvantage.

A replica is explored in To see the sea (2011), the show’s only video work. In it, Calle finds migrant workers from the interior of Turkey and brings them to the Black Sea, instructing them not to look up until they are in waterthe edge of Then they come back. This silent piece takes its inspiration from the Rückenfigur paintings that allowed the viewer to enjoy the glory of nature during the Romantic era, and the reveal of the face is not only emotionally impactful, but also a break of the fourth wall. The old man, who has waited his whole life to see this, looks at you accusingly. The little girl almost shrugs, in a way that makes you feel silly for thinking she’d be impressed.

Why capture images at all? The answers lie in BECAUSE (2018-2023), a series that combines a photograph with a felt-based panel. The embroidery on the scarf is why the photo had to be taken. Real-Fake (2018) presents a picture of artificial flowers in a museum saying “no need to touch, they are fake”. Reason: “Because you could replace the word ‘fake’ with ‘real’ and the meaning would be exactly the same.” It is strange to describe the imperfection of these flowers, which requires the mark, because Calle’s work more or less anticipated my doing so. We are among those missing from her work.

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