Sophie Calle & Jean-Paul Demoule: The Elevator Resides in 501

Publisher: Actes Sud

Measurements: 9.69 x 0.94 x 10.79 inches

Condition: New

Format: Softcover

Between 1978 and 1981, Sophie Calle went on an undercover exploration of the then abandoned Hôtel du Palais d'Orsay. She chose room 501 as her temporary home and without any foreseen outcome, started photographing the abandoned hotel over five years. 

She explored throughout and captured items she found: customer reception cards, old telephones, diaries, messages addressed to a certain “Oddo” and more. Now, more than 40 years later, room 501 has disappeared and an elevator has taken its place. This book reconstructs the artist’s archive of photography, letters, invoices and other everyday products which bring a lost past back to life. 

Award-winning French archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule gives commentary on the possessions she found with bodies of texts merging fact and fiction. In its completion, this book forms an intriguing art project that resembles an investigation notebook.