Publisher/原美術館

Google翻訳
"Douleur Exquise / Localized Excruciating Pain" by French artist Sophie Calle is a work that, starting from the extremely personal experience of heartbreak, presents as a precise structure how "pain" is transformed by time and other people. At the heart of this work is not a story of emotional outpouring or healing, but an attempt to calmly re-examine the contours of pain by repeating, arranging, and externalizing it. Calle repeatedly recounts her own "most painful experience in life" using the same text, while also asking people around the world about "the most painful experience in their lives," juxtaposing their testimonies as photographs and words. Personal pain loses its privileged status when placed alongside the diverse pains of others, and is repositioned as "pain at a specific point." The photographs do not speak for emotions, but function as devices that support the record and structure, and do not give the viewer easy empathy or catharsis. Introduced at the Hara Museum in 1999, this work clearly demonstrates Call's methodology of transforming personal experiences into institutionalized forms, quietly but profoundly questioning the meaning of speaking of pain and accepting that distance. (Note: Although the cover design is different, a complete edition including previously untranslated sections was published by Heibonsha in 2024.)