Sophia's Cell ^{2025 – Present}

Madeleine Elisabeth Peccoux’s unauthorised version of The Writing Retreat (J. Bartz, 2023)

Text-based conceptual practice (appropriated novel with editorial intervention)

In 2023, I bought The Writing Retreat, a little-known writer’s debut mystery thriller by Julia Bartz, at Heathrow Airport. I never finished it. Two years later, I found it again while reorganising my bookshelves. I printed out a copy and began editing by hand: cutting scenes, trimming dialogue, restructuring the plot. ‘Alex’, the original protagonist, became ‘Madeleine’, a blend of the original character and me. ‘Roza Vallo’, the antagonist, became Sophia Celle, a composite of Roza, Sophie Calle, Ana Mendieta, Joan Didion, and Marina Abramović.

When the book is finished, I will send it to the publisher who published the original. The real project is not the book, but the question: Why do I do it?

In 2025, I presented materials from this ongoing process as an installation at CAV Multimedia in Bucharest, as part of a solo show.

Categories
Collection, Multi-media, Ongoing, Research, Text

Financially supported by
2024 Mondriaan Fonds, Artist Start grant, NL

Exhibited
2025 Sophia’s Cell, Centrul Artelor Vizuale (CAV) Multimedia, Bucharest, RO (Solo Exhibition)

Mentions
Object Photography by Nelli Serzanowa