Produced by Perrotin, 2023
Satin ribbon with custom metallic hot stamped box
Ribbon length: 137.8 in | 350 cm
Box size: 3.7 x 1.7 x 1.7 in | 9.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 cm
Limited edition of 50 per color
Text in French
Box is signed and numbered by the artist
Available in yellow, fuchsia, green and blue. Sold individually. Limit of one of each color per person/household please.
About the edition:
In 1980 to conjure the anxiety she felt on her birthday, Sophie Calle decided to invent her own ritual and invite to dinner the number of people corresponding to her age. She kept the presents given by her guests and exhibited the objects in medicine cabinets.
With this special birthday present imagined by Sophie Calle, Perrotin Store is giving you the chance to create your own ritual ceremony with this printed ribbon, which comes in a box signed and numbered by the artist.
Text on ribbon:
Proposition pour un rituel d'anniversaire. Dans la louable et légitime intention de fonder une coutume, accepteriez-vous, lors de l'anniversaire d'une personne qui vous est proche, de faire, en ce jour et en ce jour seul, quelque chose que celle-ci vous demanderait comme une faveur? Faveur dont la réciproque vous serait rendue le jour de votre propre anniversaire. Ce jeu de demandes, éventuellement insolites mais non point périlleuses ou impossibles, vous fait-il peur? vivre un moment, une journée, sans devenir; L'abandon temporaire d'un système, une pièce qui n'entre pas nécessairement dans la sphère de l'imaginaire personnel, ou bien encore un acte simple et dénué d'importance. Il s'agit là d'un jeu, non d'un ultimatum; un épisode qui ne s'inscrit pas dans la mémoire d'un relation; un acte de courtoise au sens extrême du terme. Extraordinaire ou familier, ce geste est le reflect d'un instant de soumission irréelle. Il s’effacera, il est sans futur. Vous ne sauriez ensuite porter la responsabilité d'un acte dont vous n'êtes que le figurant, accompli pour satisfaire à un réel désir de l’autre. - Sophie Calle
English translation:
Proposal for a birthday ritual. With the laudable and legitimate intention of founding a custom, would you agree, on the birthday of a person close to you, to do, on this day and on this day alone, something that they would ask of you as A favor? A favor which would be reciprocated to you on your own birthday. Does this set of demands, possibly unusual but not dangerous or impossible, scare you? to live a moment, a day, without becoming; The temporary abandonment of a system, a piece which does not necessarily enter the sphere of personal imagination, or even a simple and devoid of importance act. This is a game, not an ultimatum; an episode that does not register in the memory of a relationship; an act of courtesy in the extreme sense of the term. Extraordinary or familiar, this gesture is the reflection of a moment of unreal submission. It will fade away, it has no future. You cannot then bear responsibility for an act of which you are only an extra, carried out to satisfy a real desire of the other. -Sophie Calle