It’s a dreaded moment, sometimes expected as a release, sometimes painfully surprising: the message of rupture. There are those who muster the courage to say it face to face, and those who leave with a hasty text message (these people are in hell). And, between the two, those who share a letter or an email.
“It’s not you it’s me”
This is what happened to artist Sophie Calle in the early 2000s. While in Berlin, she received a breakup email that left her speechless. The message embroiders on the classic register of “It’s not you it’s me” and ends with these words: ” Take care of you “. Take care of her, but how? Sophie Calle, distraught, doesn’t know how to react to the pain of separation.
But the artist is not powerless for long. Having a habit of using her life as material for creation, she decides to turn the breakup email… into a work of art. And since she herself can’t find the words to respond, she entrusts the message (and her pain) to other women.
107 women: from Jeanne Moreau to sexologist and curator
“I received a breakup email. I didn’t know how to answer.
It was like it wasn’t meant for me.
It ended with the words: Take care of yourself.
I took this recommendation at face value.
I asked 107 women – one with feathers and two with wood – chosen for their profession, their talent, to interpret the letter from a professional point of view.
Analyze it, comment on it, play it, dance it, sing it.
Dissect it. Run it out. You understand for me.
speak for me.
A way to take the time to break.
At my pace.
Take care of me. »
Among these 107 women are big names such as the actress Jeanne Moreau or the singer Camille, and many anonymous : a sexologist, a judge, a police commissioner, a historian… It is up to each of them to analyze the message of rupture with the tools of their profession.
Everyone plays: the singers set the message to music, the diplomat rebels “violation of the resolution taken upstream”, the headhunter observes “the admirable ability to repel” of the former lover, the dancer interprets the words with her body…
Omnipresence of the ego
Through their very professional and detached analysis, they distance the violence of the message. More effectively than your girlfriend helping you dissect the punctuation of your crush’s text, Calle enlists the expertise of a linguistics researchera psychiatrist and a proofreader, who are irritated by the omnipresence of the word “I” and point out the sender’s narcissism.
Their answers come in written, sung, photographed, filmed form… Grouped and exhibited, they transform into a large art installation. Even better: it even became the work that represented France at the prestigious Venice Biennale in 2007!
Calle’s breakup letter has become a collective story, a co-creation of a hundred women, all experts in their field. Women who support the artist in a formidable leap of sisterhood, who give their words where Calle’s are missing.
The former lover probably didn’t expect his email to be received by a hundred womenand that his discourse is thus scrutinized, dissected, analysed. That’s the risk when the expelled person is called Sophie Calle ! But the goal seems to have been achieved: thanks to this long artistic and therapeutic work, the artist has taken care of her.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
