The artist Sophie Calle receives the praemium imperiale prize in Tokyo, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the arts

This Thursday in Tokyo, Sophie Calle received the Praemium Imperiale prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the arts, during a ceremony bringing together the elite of the international artistic world. The visual artist who divides her life between Le Cailar and Paris was distinguished at the end of a reception in the presence of Hillary Clinton, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Four other award-winning artists in architecture, music, sculpture and cinema were also awarded this international distinction. Sophie Calle has shone in France in recent months with a notable exhibition at the Picasso Museum in Paris and another exhibition in Arles. In 2010 in Sweden, the artist received the Hasselblad Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for photography.

“So I thank my father, strolling, the 70s, Japan and France”

“As I regularly evoke death in my works, I am often called upon to give speeches at funerals. As a result, I am not used to speaking when there is no deceased. For funerals, you need lightness, for celebrations, depth. It's more difficult. Who should I thank? The life that was generous to me, my time that let me take my time. authorized wanderings and vagrancy, my father who taught me to look… Forty years ago, I spent three months in Japan and the man I loved took the opportunity to leave me. I made this breakup into a project called exquisite pain, a. medical term which designates a sharp and very localized pain Today, I wonder what name to give to the sharp and very localized joy that I experience when receiving the Praemium Imperiale. Is it because a sign of recognition which is arriving. from so far from home, is more unexpected and is it more valuable? Or because he comes from a country whose complexity I sometimes have difficulty understanding but which nevertheless seems to understand me? So I thank my father, the stroll, the 70s, Japan and France, and, of course, all those here present, who contributed to this gift.”