| PIERRE AND GILLES | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| list of links to Pierre and Gilles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Artist Statement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject matter embraces a wide range of themes
from homoeroticism and the male nude to glamour and fame, religion and myth. Greek
gods, film and pop music stars, French sailors, muscle men, Indian film stars
and Roman Catholic saints comprise the image vocabulary of Pierre and Gilles.
Famous and not so famous actors and actresses, musicians, and porn stars have all posed for Pierre et Gilles. The list reads like a who's who list of mainstream and alternative culture: Tilda Swinton, Jeff Stryker, Boy George, Nina Hagen, Cathérine Deneuve, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and Jean-Paul Gaultier to name just a few. Their works have appeared in and on the covers of Actuel, Samourai, Gay Pied, Marie Claire, Playboy, designed numerous album covers for artists such as Marc Almond, Sandii, Lio and Etienne Daho. They play with stereotypes of religion, sexuality and culture and draw from numerous genres for their inspiration. Pierre et Gilles have created series of works with titles such as "Les Pleureuses", "Petits Costumes", "Le Saints", "Les Garcons de Paris", "Les Plaisirs de la Floret", "Princes et Princesses", "Jolis Voyous", "Les Naufragés", "Les Enfants des Iles", and "Les Paradis". Pierre et Gilles play irreverently with our perceptions of religion and pop culture, juxtaposing the secular and non-secular, the saint and the sinner, the divine and the depraved | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Biography | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1976 - Pierre and Gilles meet each other at a
party given in Paris by fashion designer Kenzo. Pierre is a photographer and works
in Paris for various magazines (Rock & Folk, Façade...). After studying at
the Beaux-Arts in Le Havre, Gilles teaches drawing in different middle schools.
Since their meeting, they have never been apart. 1977 - Their work becomes inseparable from their life. First travel to Morocco followed by a journey to India in 1978 where they will return often. 1979 - Pierre et Gilles design the disco album cover sleeve of Amanda Lear Diamonds for Breakfast. They create many other cover sleeves for their singer friends: Etienne Daho (from 1983 on), Nina Hagen (1993), Lio (from 1985 on), or Khaled (1992)... First ads for fashion designer Adeline André, followed by several other ads projects. 1981 - Echoing their encounter, they debut their first large series La Création du Monde and Le Paradis, which turns them back into the Golden Age, the mythical era before the original sin, and that of Heaven on Earth. 1983 - First solo exhibition at the Galerie Texbraun, Paris. 1984 - First travel to Japan, where they become real superstars. 1985/86 - Series Les Naufragés, which they continue until 1987. First video realization by Pierre et Gilles, Naufrage d'hiver, for the Mikado band. Several other video-clips for L.N.A, Chachnil, and Marc Almond... 1988 - They receive the First Video-Clip Award at the Val d'Isere Festival. Travel to Vietnam and Thailand. 1988/93 - Very large series of Les Saints. 1988/98 - Series on sea and sailors, a major and reoccurring theme in Pierre et Gilles work (both were bred at the seaside). 1993 - Win the Great Prize of Photography in Paris. 1996 - Series of Jolis Voyous and Les Plaisirs de la Foret. Retrospective of their twenty years of artistic collaboration at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. 1998 - Exhibition at the Museo des Bellas Artes in Valencia, Spain. Douce Violence, first solo exhibit at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris (which becomes their exclusive representative worldwide). There is unveiled for the first time the black and white series "La Rose et Le Couteau". 1999 - Retrospective at the Turun Taidemuseo in Turku, Finland. Participate in the group exhibition Appearance at the Galleria de Arte Moderna in Bologna, Italy. 2000 - Participate in La Beauté in Fabula, huge group exhibition celebrating the Third Millennium, in Avignon, France. 2000/01 - First important American retrospective survey at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, and at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2001. 2001/02 - Important personal exhibition at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont in Paris, entitled Arrache mon coeur, which shows all their works of the last three years and celebrates twenty-five years of an indissoluble artistic collaboration. This exhibitions is then shown at the KunstHausWien in Vienna, Austria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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