ceremony encased.

For some reason I am thinking a lot about Sophie Calle's Birthday Ceremony project today.
I am remembering and loving how she created this ritualistic dinner around her birthday and then preserved all (or mostly all) of her gifts in vitrine like glass door cabinets.

a description of the project:

Calle held an annual dinner party on the evening (or around the time) of her birthday. To each celebration she invited a group of friends and relatives, the precise number of invitees corresponding to the number of years of her age, with one additional, anonymous guest nominated by a chosen guest, in order to symbolise the unknown of her future... The guests brought gifts, tokens of love and affection, and these Calle displayed in a glass-fronted cabinet, as a constant reminder of this affection. At the end of the year the objects were boxed up and put away, their places taken by the gifts of another birthday dinner party.

Creating ritual in a world that has begun to lose them.
Creating meaning and artifact in the objects that are brought into our lives.
And organizing it all in a way that reads more like cataloguing.

So interesting and beautiful and complicated.
Just on my mind today.