Presented at Les Rencontres d’Arles before travelling to Paris, ‘5bis’ is Charlotte Gainsbourg’s first photography exhibition, accompanied by a book published by Saint Laurent Editions.
Some places exist between memory and history. That in-between space defines Charlotte Gainsbourg‘s first photography exhibition, ‘5bis’, presented at the 57th edition of Les Rencontres d’Arles with the support of Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello and Maja Hoffmann. Curated by Matthieu Humery, the exhibition features more than twenty previously unseen photographs taken inside the Paris home where Gainsbourg lived with her parents, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, shortly before it became Maison Gainsbourg, the museum dedicated to her father’s life and work.
Taken with a Hasselblad camera, the images record the house as Charlotte knew it before it opened to visitors. Books, furniture, handwritten notes, family photographs and everyday objects preserve the atmosphere of a home that remained untouched for decades. ‘5bis’ captures the final moments of a deeply personal space before its transformation into a museum.
Speaking to Another Magazine, Gainsbourg described the project as an attempt to preserve what was about to disappear: “I steal before it’s too late.” She adds: “I steal before all of you enter. My lair. My hideout.” The photographs become a way of holding onto memory before sharing it with the public.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book ‘5bis’, published by Saint Laurent Editions. Alongside a standard edition of one thousand copies, it is available in fifteen limited editions containing five silver gelatin prints and nine artist’s editions with an additional print and a handwritten text by Gainsbourg.
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