Sophie Calle »Erinnerungen an Ostberlin«

Although, as the saying in »Madame Bovary« goes: ‘Il ne faut pas toucher aux idoles: la dorure en reste aux mains’ (‘One must not touch idols: the gilding sticks to one’s hands’), that is precisely one of the most wonderful aspects of our job! We get to meet our heroes and heroines, and Sophie Calle has certainly been one of them for many decades!

This autumn she’s coming to the city for her first solo exhibition in Berlin, and we’re thrilled that she’s celebrating the book launch of »Memories of East Berlin« with us!

In her new book, Sophie Calle documents a pivotal episode in the history of reunified Berlin and shows how private memory and collective memory intertwine. To do this, she visited the sites from which the visible symbols of GDR history had been removed and asked passers-by and local residents to describe what had previously filled the spaces that are now empty: ‘I photographed the absence and replaced the missing monuments with memories of them.’

The artist will discuss memory, her art and writing with the author and filmmaker Felix von Boehm. Kerstin Elsner will provide simultaneous interpretation from French. The German passages will be read by Vicky Krieps.

From 13 November 2026 to 4 April 2027, Sophie Calle will be presenting her first solo exhibition in Berlin for over 20 years at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. The starting point for the exhibition »Is It Better?« is a work from her series »Die Entfernung« (The Distance), held in the Hamburger Bahnhof’s collection. This was created in 1996 in Berlin, the year the museum was founded. The twelve photographs depict public places in Berlin where symbols of the GDR were removed following reunification, accompanied by descriptions provided by passers-by. For more information on the exhibition, visit: https://www.smb.museum/ausstellungen/detail/sophie-calle/

An event in French with simultaneous interpretation into German.