Fashion, book, movie and music addicts!

vendredi 31 octobre 2008

Currently running at the Cite de la Musique till the 1st of March 2009 is an exhibition on Serge Gainsbourg. One of France’s most beloved composer and singer, there is no doubting the influence that Serge Gainsbourg has exerted over the years. What this exhibition does is to present a rich trove of material on his life and works. And if you look carefully, much of the material was donated by his daughter Charlotte from her own collection. There are over a hundred pictures and television clips spanning the forty fruitful years of his career as well as interviews with numerous people he worked with. For the benefit of attendees, notably those not so familiar with his work, the exhibition also takes pains to highlight certain milestone periods of his career and the way he took the current trends and made it his own. He was an artist frequently way ahead of the times and the exhibition shows this facet of the man. It was fascinating to discover how much work he was able to produce. I didn’t even realize that he had published a book (Evguenie Sokolov) or that he had directed films. Another fascinating detail I learned was that he was so shy that he stopped performing in public in 1968! For such a provocateur, that was a real surprise. Of course, we can’t talk about Gainsbourg without dealing with his controversial private life and the exhibition doesn’t flinch from it. There are photos (some more provocative than others) of the famous women he was with, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, to name just two of the more prominent ones.

The nicest part about this exhibition is the room showing all the records he ever made. It was an impressive sight to see them all lined up against the wall. But even better than seeing the records are the computers set up where visitors could listen to a great number of extracts of his music, as well as the musicians that inspired him in all his long years. It also includes commentaries on his music. This is an invaluable resource and alone merits the visit to the exhibition. And because the organizers were nothing if not thorough, they have arranged for special showings of films Gainsbourg loved and more importantly, different tribute concerts throughout the period of the exhibition. All in all, this is a great way to spend a precious Saturday afternoon.