Artist Sophie Calle at the top, she wins the Imperiale Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for the Arts

Sophie Calle divides her time between Le Cailar and Paris. PHOTO YVES GEANT ©

French artist Sophie Calle will receive the Imperiale Prize in Tokyo in November. The visual artist who divides her time between Le Cailar (Gard) and Paris received the Hasseblad Prize in 2010, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for photography. This time, the Imperiale Prize honors her for her entire body of work. Interview.

Who did you think of when you received this award ? How did you feel ?

When you receive an award, wondering if you should have accepted it, you pretend that it is to please your parents. My parents are dead and, in any case, I did not think of refusing this award which gives me immense pleasure. Firstly because it is addressed to my work and also because it is wonderful to be recognized far from home and, as far as I am concerned, more than anywhere else, in Japan.

But you are therefore receiving the Imperial Prize as a painter ?

Yes, and it's rather funny to be bombarded as a painter ! But there is no photography category, so they adapt…

You are going to Japan in November to receive this distinction in a country where you experienced a breakup which was the subject of your work Douleur Exquise ?

However, things had started badly between this country and me. I left on October 25, 1984 without knowing that this date marked the beginning of a 92-day countdown that would lead to a breakup that I experienced at the time as the most painful moment of my life. I held this trip responsible for it. Then, what was a bad memory became a project that brought me much more joy than my failed love story, and the pain became exquisite. And over the course of my subsequent travels, Japan became the place of my dreams.

The Imperial Prize is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the arts, isn't it surprising for a visual artist and photographer to receive it ?

No, since it is specifically intended for artists, it is therefore a way of recognizing my work.

The title of your exhibition in Paris at the Picasso Museum “A toi de faire ma mignon”, a phrase from your mother, is it not significant in the face of this prize Imperial ?

I don't think the Japanese committee thought of my mother, nor that they are addressing me as someone who has to start out in life, because this prize recognizes a career… and since the title of the exhibition I now have in Arles at the Rencontres de la Photographie is Finir en beauté, I hope my exhibition titles aren't too meaningful…

In 2010 you received the Hasselblad Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for photography, the Imperial Prize is added, what does that cause, a vertigo of happiness…? You feel loved as a result…?

How you go! Prizes are not marks of love… what I like is that it is a “professional” price…

Your father Bob Calle, a great collector, doctor and founder of Carré d’art in Nîmes, would have told you what ?

He would have told others that he was proud but with me he would have been more measured, he would have perhaps said : "That's good !" which was already a lot in his mouth.

And your mother ?

"You have them well eus !". Because she was mocking.

And your friend Jean Lafont ?

He was more like my father, affectionate but sober.

Now that you have been distinguished, go and compete to have your culinary talents recognized and submit yourself to the appreciation of the Michelin guide ?

First of all, we don't compete, we receive them without asking for anything… And let me enjoy this prize already, before thinking about the next one! But as for the kitchen I don't have the slightest hope!

Have your friends from Cailar congratulated you yet??

Some have, but otherwise I haven't told anyone yet, I'm waiting for Midi Libre to do it!

The Sophie Calle exhibition is on display in Arles until September 29, 2024, Finir en beauté.