SHARING WITH ME

Pierre and Gilles, are French artists and partners. (Sorry Pierrette, I thought they were English!) They produce highly stylized unique hand-painted photographs, building their own sets and costumes as well as retouching the photographs with acrylic paint. Their work often features images from art history, popular culture, religion and gay culture including pornography. So it’s not surprising that most people are not followers of their work. I have been for a number of years. Certainly not the pornographic. That has always revolted me but most of their « satyrical » and send-ups. They have sometimes attracted controversy. For example, in 2012 there was a public outcry in Austria when their work entitled « Vive la France » was displayed on large street posters to advertise the Nackte Männer (Naked Men) exhibition created by Ilse Haider at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. It depicts three naked French footballers with their genitals fully revealed: the first black, the second Arab/Muslim an

It took me as long as that. Obviously, I had an exhibition which was a « must »    The MUST.... but when I suggested to Pierrette that she should come with me, she replied "why not for two or three days." We opted for nearly four days….Marseille here we come. For over 30 years I had been going backwards and forwards from Marseille when in Carry-le-Rouet with my Mother. There was always a reason to visit that city but never a reason to be a tourist. Now we were going to be tourists as we were in New York last year. I followed my Iphone for the week preceding our departure and day by day the weather turned from rain to cloudy/sunny and then sunny. That’s what we had, sun and warmth and those beautiful clear skies which you see on the Mediterranean. A little Mistral just to prove to me that that ghastly wind was still around, but nothing to blow us off the streets. Our hotel was very central - we could walk everywhere - and we did. Well not quite to Notre Dame de la Garde