Appointment: with Sigmund Freud

In February 1998, I was invited to create an exhibition entitled Appointment at a house at 20 Maresfield Gardens, London, where Dr Freud lived and died. After having a vision of my wedding dress laid across Freud’s couch, I immediately accepted. I chose to display relics of my own life amongst the interior of Sigmund’s home’ – Sophie Calle.

A unique and beautifully produced assembly of Calle’s own texts and personal objects juxtaposed with objects from Sigmund Freud’s personal collection, still kept in his Hampstead house, Appointment features fragments from the artist’s own fascinating life story, characteristic texts that reveal intimate secrets and unravel some of Calle’s childhood memories as well as her adult relationships.

Calle’s references to certain mementoes and the emotionally charged events with which they are associated have many parallels to Freud’s own psychoanalytic theories and his passion for collecting.