‘I requested folks to offer me eight hours of their sleep’: Sophie Calle revisits her inventive experiment

In 1979, French author, photographer and artist Sophie Calle invited associates and strangers to sleep in her mattress, with the intention of photographing them and recording their actions, together with their conversations behind closed doorways. Twenty-seven folks mentioned sure, together with a seamstress, a trumpet participant, a painter, a baker and a babysitter.

‘I requested folks to offer me eight hours of their sleep,’ says Calle, talking earlier than the publication of this report, translated into English for the primary time. ‘To come back and sleep in my mattress. For eight days, my room was to be a very occupied house. The occupation of the mattress started on Sunday 1 April 1979, at 5pm and ended on Monday 9 April at 10am. Sleepers got here and went. Some crossed paths. Everybody was provided breakfast, lunch or dinner. Clear bedding was offered. To ascertain a impartial relationship, I requested a couple of questions. I took pictures each hour. I watched my visitors sleep.’

The brand new version of the expertise reproduces not solely the photographic report of the inventive experiment, but additionally the narrative which runs alongside it, as Calle quizzes her visitors. Is sleeping a pleasure? Do they speak of their sleep? Do they dream? What would they like for breakfast?