Charlotte Gainsbourg’s first photography exhibition, 5bis, opens at La Galerie du Cloître in Arles from 6 July to 6 September as part of the 57th Rencontres d’Arles photography festival. Presented with the support of Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello and Maja Hoffmann, the exhibition will then travel to Paris, where it will be shown at the Saint Laurent Rive Droite boutique from 24 September.

The exhibition documents Maison Gainsbourg just before it became a museum dedicated to the life and work of her father, Serge Gainsbourg. Ahead of its opening to the public, Gainsbourg took her Hasselblad to the place where she once lived and photographed it. The result is over twenty intimate images, many previously unseen, that move through the home at 5bis Rue de Verneuil the way any of us might revisit a place that is deeply familiar. Emotional flashes of the past coming into the present.

Curated by Matthieu Humery, 5bis is an act of memory and remembrance. The accompanying book, published by Saint Laurent Editions, will be available in several versions: a standard edition of one thousand copies, a limited edition of fifteen books each including five silver gelatin prints, and nine artist’s editions with an additional silver gelatin print and text handwritten by Gainsbourg herself. With exhibition and book alike, 5bis reveals how Gainsbourg has transformed memory into creation.

Photos by Charlotte Gainsbourg