GAINSB'ART & CO

In 1985, at the request of Médias magazine, Roberto Battistini created a staged portrait of Serge Gainsbourg as a tribute to Dalí. A fervent admirer of the surrealist painter, Gainsbourg lent himself to the game, and wearing a hairpiece of the master's famous moustache, he shouted, like Dalí, "Je suis fou du chocolat Lanvin" (I'm crazy about Lanvin chocolate). This photograph by Roberto Battistini is the starting point for a series of portraits, this time of Gainsbourg. Suggested by the photographer to contemporary artists from a wide variety of backgrounds, from video art to street art to culinary art, each of them reinterpreted this now iconic image. Inspired by the title of a song, like Peter Klasen, Juan le Parc or Pierre Gagnaire, or projecting their own universe, like Hervé Di Rosa, Jacques Villeglé or Erró, they offer us an original work of art. ORLAN hybridizes with Dalí and Gainsbourg, Mark Brusse rediscovers the fundamentals of Surrealism through Buñuel, and Jean-Luc Moerman and Anna Kache give free rein to their imagination, one embroidering tender, nostalgic words into the image, the other scarifying the singer's face, while Pierre-Marie Lejeune's luminous sculpture responds to Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri's 3D quantum portrait. This project, begun over ten years ago by Roberto Battistini, continues today, illustrating the immense vitality and creativity of contemporary art.