Sophie Calle: Is It Better?

Preview: written before the show opened

In The Detachment, Calle photographed twelve places in Berlin where symbols of the GDR were taken down after reunification, then paired each picture with what passersby remembered of it. The work dates from 1996, the year Hamburger Bahnhof opened as a museum, and it already belongs to the Nationalgalerie's collection.

It is one of six bodies of work from the last three decades, in photography, text, installation and video. Les fantômes d'Orsay (2022) is a large installation of found objects, photographs and texts from room 501 of the abandoned Gare d'Orsay hotel, where Calle spent time almost daily between 1978 and 1981. If you have ever tried to remember what the Späti on your corner was before it became a Späti, this is the twelve-photograph version.

Calle is also making a new work for the museum's 30th anniversary, to be donated to the collection. The show opens that anniversary weekend, with 30 hours of continuous free opening. Regular entry is €16, with late opening until 20:00 on Thursdays.