SAN DIEGO, CA.- On Thursday, January 15, at 7 pm the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) will present its annual Russell Lecture at MCASD's La Jolla location. The 2009 Russell Lecturer is renowned and influential Paris-based artist Sophie Calle.

In her conceptual and poetic works, Calle consciously conceals the borders between art and life, fiction and reality, and the private and the public. With self-established behavioral instructions and rituals, she transforms her daily life with a series of performances, usually executed as a combination of texts and photographs.

Calle represented France in the 2007 Venice Biennale, where she turned a break-up e-mail from her boyfriend into a much praised work of art titled Take care of yourself (Prenez soin de vois). For this work, the artist asked more than 100 women--including a copy editor, an etiquette consultant, a chess player, and forensic psychiatrist--to read the e-mail and then analyze and interpret it from their unique professional perspectives.

Born in Paris in 1953, Calle has shown in several solo and group exhibitions around the world during the past three decades. She has been dubbed as "French art's game-player in chief" and the "Marcel Duchamp of emotional dirty laundry" by the British daily, The Guardian, capitulating her method of turning unfortunate circumstances into more fortunate ones. She currently lives and works in Paris.

For many years, MCASD and UCSD have partnered to bring contemporary artists to our city through the annual Russell Lecture program. The Russell Foundation was established in the will of Betty Russell, one of MCASD's founding docents and a long-time supporter of UCSD. She specified that funds from the foundation should help "foster the appreciation and study of the modern visual arts and creativity of young artists" through support to the Museum and the University. Past Russell Lecture speakers have included Robert Irwin (2008), John Miller (2007), and Nancy Rubins (2006).

In addition to this public lecture, Calle will have a chance to meet and interact with students in UCSD's Visual Arts Department, as part of the Russell Foundation program.