Charlotte Gainsbourg makes her photography debut with 5bis, a deeply personal exhibition unveiled as part of the 57th Rencontres d’Arles. Supported by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello and curated by Matthieu Humery, the exhibition is on view at La Galerie du Cloître in Arles from July 6th to September 6th, 2026, before travelling to Saint Laurent Rive Droite in Paris on September 24th.
A poetic farewell to Maison Gainsbourg through the camera
For 5bis, Charlotte Gainsbourg returned to 5 bis Rue de Verneuil, the Paris home where her father, Serge Gainsbourg, lived for decades, shortly before it opened to the public as Maison Gainsbourg. Working alone with a Hasselblad camera, she captured the interiors exactly as they remained, creating more than twenty previously unseen photographs that preserve the quiet presence of a home poised between intimate memory and public legacy.
The photographs are more than just a record of a place; they evoke moments that linger beneath the surface. Empty rooms, familiar objects, changing light and fleeting traces of daily life are transformed into fragments of remembrance that express absence, intimacy and farewell with remarkable restraint.
Charlotte Gainsbourg turns personal memory into a photographic portrait
The exhibition functions both as a family archive and a deeply personal artistic statement. As Maison Gainsbourg prepared to enter a new chapter as a museum, Charlotte Gainsbourg chose to preserve its final moments as a lived-in home, capturing details destined to disappear once the space welcomed the public.
The project is accompanied by 5bis, a publication released by Saint Laurent Editions, available in several collectible editions, including limited versions featuring silver gelatin prints and handwritten texts by the artist.
