Sophie Calle: Is It Better?

Six body of work from the past three decades—comprising photography, text, installation, and video—offer a glimpse into the French conceptual artist’s diverse use of media.

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  Sophie Calle, The Detachment, 1996, Farbfotografie und Buch, 2-teilig, 120 x 90 x 4 cm (Bild)

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  Sophie Calle (13. November 2026 - 2. Mai 2027), Portrait de Dora Maar, 2022

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  Sophie Calle, Portrait

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Hamburger Bahnhofs anniversary year will be concluded by Sophie Calle with a major exhibition opening during the anniversary weekend. The show will combine works created in Berlin with others referencing the museum’s history as a train station, complemented by a new work commissioned especially for the 30th anniversary collection.

Sophie Calle is presenting her first solo exhibition in Berlin in over 20 years at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. Six bodies of work spanning the last three decades—comprising photography, text, installation, and video—offer insight into the French conceptual artist’s diverse use of media. Calle often explores the effects of memory, loss, and history in an autobiographical, somber yet humorous manner. To mark the museum’s 30th anniversary, a new work is being created, which will be donated to the Hamburger Bahnhof’s collection.

The starting point for Sophie Calle’s solo exhibition is a work from the series “Die Entfernung” in the collection of the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. The series was created in Berlin in 1996, the year the museum was founded. The twelve photographs depict public places in Berlin where symbols of the GDR were removed after reunification, accompanied by descriptions provided by passersby. In addition, the large-scale installation “Les fantômes d’Orsay” (2022) will be exhibited for the first time since its creation for the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Between 1978 and 1981, Calle spent time almost daily in Room 501 of the abandoned hotel in the former Gare d’Orsay train station, which, like the Hamburger Bahnhof, was transformed into an art museum. The installation combines found objects, photographs, and texts.

Runtime: Fri, 13/11/2026 to Sun, 04/04/2027

Takes place here:

• Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart

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