The Elevator Resides in 501

Sophie Calle lived in room 501 of the Hôtel du Palais d Orsay from 1978 to 1981 and documented the abandoned hotel over 5 years. She returned to the site during the lockdown period and hunted down the ghosts of the Palais d Orsay, reconstructing her archive of photography, letters, invoices, and other daily items to create an objet dart resembling an investigation notebook.

Format: Hardback
Length: 392 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2022
Publisher: Actes Sud

Between 1978 and 1981, artist Sophie Calle embarked on a covert expedition to the then-deserted Hôtel du Palais d'Orsay. She chose room 501 as her abode and, without any predetermined methodology, embarked on a five-year photographic exploration of the abandoned hotel. During her explorations, she collected various items such as room numbers, customer reception cards, old telephones, diaries, messages addressed to a person named "Oddo," and more.

Over 40 years later, room 501 has vanished, and an elevator has taken its place. At the invitation of Donatien Grau, the Musée d'Orsay curator, Sophie Calle returned to the site during the lockdown period, equipped with a flashlight, to re-explore the area. She sought out the spirits of the Palais d'Orsay, now connected to the present by the visitors who had also abandoned the museum.

The artist's work reconstructs her photographic archive, letters, invoices, and other daily items, bringing a forgotten past back to life. To provide commentary on her discoveries, Sophie Calle called upon archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule, who writes a series of texts that blend fact and fiction.

All this evidence has been meticulously assembled to create an object dart that resembles an investigation notebook.

Weight: 1132g
Dimension: 245 x 288 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9782330159481