For the first time in France since the retrospective devoted to them in 1996 at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Pierre and Gilles will show their recent works at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont from December 4, 1998 to January 30, 1999.

This exhibition will group together more than forty works from 1997 and 1998 : celebrities portraits, self-portraits, latest works on the reoccurring theme of the sea, amusing works.  The public will find all the very personal and much appreciated iconography of Pierre and Gilles. Will be added works on the theme of mystery, black magic and gloom that plonge us into the universe recently imagined by Pierre and Gilles, where symbols and representations of death emerge

La rose et le couteau (the rose and the knife) will constitute the biggest surprise of this exhibition.  This gallery of portraits, the very latest created by Pierre and Gilles, evoke the Paris of the 1940´s, that of Jacques Prévert, the songs of Edith Piaf, the novels of Jean Genet, and the cinema before WWII.  La rose et le couteau marks a turning point in the work of Pierre and Gilles with the very unexpected use of black and white, which gave to these portraits a very classical aspect, not very far from the photographic portraits of this epoch, those of Raymond Voinquel or the Studio Harcourt.

Like always, their works are entirely conceived by themselves from the theatral production to the scenery, from the accessories to the lighting, from the make-up to the costumes, even up to the final touches on the unique photo print.  In this established process, Pierre photographs and once the print is made, Gilles retouches it in order to achieve an aesthetic perfection.  Thus, their works are always unique pieces:

Pierre and Gilles form a couple, an entity whose work is inseparable from their life and their everyday universe.  Finally, to complete the exhibition, photographs, posters and their fetish objects will be presented in windows which will recreate their own universe to a large public.

            Especially for this exhibition, a catalogue showing all the exhibited works and a text by Catherine Francblin will be published in collaboration with the artists (catalogue available December 1st. )