> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.strangetourist.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Absence is present in Sophie Calle's Something Missing? exhibition - URL: https://www.strangetourist.co.uk/sophie-calle-new-exhibition-turner-margate-review/ - Published: 2026-10-03T07:00:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-03T07:00:51.000Z - Description: French conceptual artist Sophie Calle's new exhibition at Turner Contemporary explores the stories found in the in between - Author: Zita Whalley - Tags: Art, Things to do in Margate, Things to do in Thanet and beyond, Thanet, Reviews, Margate, Local guides Turner Contemporary’s new show, Sophie Calle: Something Missing? opens today. It is the French conceptual artist’s first institutional exhibition in the UK since 2009, pulling together photography, video and installation works that date back to 1986\. The selected works are deeply human. They are voyeuristic, tender and intimate, shaped by dry wit and sharp intellect and unified with such clarity by the theme of absence, “the absence is present”, as Calle said, addressing the turn out at Turner’s press call. The eight collections, while differing in subject, each stem from something that is missing, a “mother who is no longer here, a lover who leaves, an idea that doesn’t come”. The absence of Picasso, the want of a lover, a lack of sight even. It is the sort of exhibition you can return to over and over, finding new nuggets each visit. Highlights include On the Hunt, an edit of personal ads published in the classifieds and on Tinder between 1895 and 2019, which you could study for days. Funny, surprising and vulnerable, the person seeking person ads reveal the human seeking companionship and the values of the day - who knew butcher was such an in-demand post war job? Earlier personals are very pragmatic, almost as if the ad maker is on the hunt for a prize-winning ewe. Jump to modern times, and an annual pass to Disneyland and a sausage dog called Mr Franck Furter is a summation of character. Some ads are deeply sad, like the 25 year old who has suffered a lot and is prepared to marry an unhappy girl. Others are niche, like the beekeeper seeking beekeeper in "any region". Catalogue raisonné of the unfinished was another stand out work. The collection of unfinished ideas and projects, presented as summaries, documentation and an explanation why the project was never completed is an insight into Calle herself and of her ideation process. This is perhaps where Calle’s wit is most astute, as she presents half finished projects and semi-formed ideas, like the man who offered his services as a model and domestic help, and who offered to become ‘the plastic man’. Or Calle’s ill-fated Happy Cow cheese collector’s packaging, which featured a bull licking her nipple. Or her attempt to track down other women named Sophie Calle. The Blind, a body of work Calle made in 1986 featuring photos and text, reveals what beauty is to a person who has never seen and how vivid a blind person’s world can be. Sophie Calle: Something Missing? is full of emotional integrity and conceptual clarity that makes the presented ideas seem so simple, but also anything but. ***The exhibition runs until January 23 at Turner Contemporary. Free entry.*** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3514.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3542.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3517.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3524.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3530.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3533.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3538.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3536.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/39/0639efc0-b873-4e30-ac06-2893b029d0e0/content/images/2026/10/IMG_3549.jpeg) Images from Sophie Calle's Something Missing? at Turner Contemporary, Margate. **Photos: Strange Tourist* Want more? [Subscribe to our newsletter](https://www.strangetourist.co.uk/#/portal) for a hit of arts, culture and fun things to do around Thanet and beyond in your inbox every Saturday morning.