For almost 18 years now, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation has been encouraging young talent in France – including writers, photographers, scriptwriters and digital artists – while actively participating in spreading French culture throughout the world. It also strives to make art – and, more generally speaking, creativity – of benefit to education, health and social cohesion.

As part of this mission, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation has sought to forge a link between a major artistic event, in this case Sophie Calle’s Prenez Soin de Vous (Take Care of Yourself) at the Venice Biennale, and an establishment that welcomes and cares for youth in need, Paris’ Maison de Solenn.

On the one hand we have a leading artist who, based on a personal experience – an e-mail signalling the end of a relationship, has created a work of art with considerable humour (“A way of taking the time to break up at my own pace, to take care of myself,” she says), while on the other hand we have a pioneering European therapy centre that also seeks to explore – in the form of an exhibition, Histoires d’Amours, running from November 2007 to June 2008 – intimate relationships and their bearing on young people.

For her exhibit, Sophe Calle asked 107 women, chosen for their profession or skills, to interpret this letter, to analyze it, comment on it, dance it,sing it - all in the form of texts, of photographs and vidéos.

The exhibition at the Maison de Solenn will present the work of adolescents and teens, admitted to this establishment, based on experiences – declarations of love, extracts from intimate diaries, works of visual art and more – that make up a love story (or depict the failure to do so): overtures, encounters, physical commitments and day-to-day relationship realities, as well as love’s aftermath – break-ups, how to recover after ‘the end’, developing friendships and moving on. Within the context of this partnership, several teens will be visiting Venice.

For her part, Sophie Calle, who is highly enthusiastic about the project, will visit the Maison de Solenn to share her experiences with these young people. It sounds as though there will be some interesting encounters to look forward to. And for the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, it will be a new way of combining creativity with solidarity.


photo : chasseur de têtes
© droits réservés Sophie Calle 2007