Now more than ever in 2009, the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont is aiming to make the most of the FIAC which it sees as an essential driving force for the Paris contemporary art market. In the competition between the various European fairs and capitals, the gallery has always puts its trust both in Paris taking the leadership in contemporary art in Europe and in the FIAC as a vehicle for this revitalisation.

In the current gloomy economic and social context, the gallery is also aiming to defend its commitment to working alongside artists and its faith in the power of their work which, now more than ever, influences the way we look at the world around us.

So Desire is the unifying theme chosen by the gallery in order to offer a very attractive, limited choice of works - most of which newly created - by artists who are permanently represented by the gallery:

Valérie Belin and objects which embody desire: a Bugatti from her very latest series of photographs created in 2008,Vintage Cars, never exhibited previously, and a colourful Corbeille de Fruits (Fruit Basket), a highly carnal, sensual still life, created in 2007 for her “Confrontation” with Manet at the Musée d’Orsay.

Francesco Clemente with a very fine canvas from 2004, symbolising his Hindu view of sex as the source behind the birth of any life, with no taboos about its artistic illustration.

George Condo who will unveil brand-new paintings, just a few weeks after his exhibition at the Musée Maillol in Paris: two burlesque, fanciful portraits from 2009, The Debutante and Smiling Clown, where once again we can see the image of the forbidden fruit…

Fabrice Hyber is currently working on two paintings tackling this topic of desire, a complex notion which the artist is incorporating into every level of his creative process as a key to grasping his protean art.

Jeff Koons with two historic works, I Assume You Drink Martell and Ice Bucket, from the Luxury and Degradation series (1986), which was entirely based on alcohol, and in which the artist railed against the manipulative way that advertising uses luxury products to sell an inaccessible dream.

McDermott & McGough and two works created in 2008, one painting and one sculpture, with their iconography drawn from 1960s American films and cartoons reminding us that many unavowed desires hided behind the idealistically glamorous images of that period.

Shirin Neshat in parallel to her exhibition at the gallery of her new series on Laos, with a rarely seen, old and large format image from her legendary Women of Allah series (1996). This black and white photograph covered with ink calligraphy features two tenderly intertwined hands and suggests the many forms of desire which can be embodied by intimate human relationships, whether between lovers or parents and children.

Pierre et Gilles, just before their new exhibition at the gallery, represented here through a historic work from 1991, La Charmeuse de Serpent (The Snake Charmer), a feminised version of this fascinating universal symbol of bewitchment and magic which nothing can resist…

Bettina Rheims´ photography inevitably makes us think of female desire. She will be unveil here the very first prints from her brand-new C’est Paris series (2009), which will be exhibited at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 2010.

By hanging this group of 10/15 works using various media (painting, sculpture, photography), the gallery aims to arouse the desire to see and admire an undying and contemporary creation, the desire to acquire and to own art… A desire so captivating that in the end it transforms amateurs into enthusiasts, collectors into men and women possessed, thus making sense of the famous quotation by Robert Filliou, “Art is what makes life more interesting than art”.