Sophie Calle Will Bury Your Secrets In Green-Wood Cemetery This Weekend

by Stephanie Maida · April 28, 2017

    Leave it to French conceptual artist Sophie Calle to give literal meaning to the phrase "take your secrets to the grave." This weekend, she's teaming up with Creative Time for the debut of her newest public art project, Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery. Calle will be present on Saturday and Sunday to unburden visitors of their innermost musings, which they can share directly with her and then deposit into the earth through a slot in a special marble obelisk. 

    Set to run for 25 years, the piece is Creative Time's longest-running, giving New Yorkers a remarkable chance to engage with one of the city's most ethereal landmarks. Over the course of the next two decades, Calle will return to the Brooklyn "grave site" periodically to exhume and burn the written secrets in ceremonial bonfires. 

    The two-day live performance will be open to the public from noon to 5 pm, though attendees should be mindful of crowd size and wait times. Then again, loads of special programming, including walking tours amid the monuments and mausoleums, will be available throughout the day, so even if you don't share your secret with Sophie during the inauguration, you can always whisper it among the dead. Sounds like the perfect springtime activity to us. 

    Green-Wood Cemetery, 5th Avenue and 25th Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn

    [Photos by Guillaume Ziccarelli Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery & Perrotin]