Christine Guibert

Former teacher Christine Guibert first met Hervé Guibert in 1976 with her partner Thierry Journo, who was the Director of an Institute for deaf people and later became the artist’s lover. They struck up a strong and enduring friendship, lasting throughout Guibert’s battle with AIDs and until his untimely death in 1991. Before Guibert died and with the spectre of his diagnosis hanging over him, he insisted that Christine and him married so she could become the “ayant droit” custodian of his estate and the royalties would go to her and her children, who she later had with Journo. Since 1991, Christine Guibert has fulfilled this role, helping to curate exhibitions, protecting his image and ultimately securing his legacy as one of France’s most enigmatic artists.

Agathe Gaillard

Agatha Gaillard is a French gallerist who opened Galerie Agathe Gaillard in 1975, France’s first gallery entirely dedicated to photography. Since then, Gaillard has devoted her life and career to promoting photography as an art form and supporting the photographers she exhibited in her gallery space. In the ensuing decades, she has held over 250 exhibitions, consulted for major festivals, private collections and museums, and helped to raise the profile of mythical photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ralph Gibson, Hervé Guibert and many others. In 2015, Gaillard declared to the Le Parisien newspaper, “I have succeeded in having photography recognized as an art in its own right […] My role was obvious: take the photos once made and pass them on to the public. It has fascinated me all my life.”

Kiddy Smile

Kiddy Smile is a French DJ, producer and artist. Raised in a housing project in Rambouillet (Yvelines) to the southwest of Paris, his creative path moved through dancing and fashion styling before finding his way into music. His influences crystallised inside the voguing scene and he became the figurehead of Paris’ underground ballroom scene through the events he used to run. These parties opened the doors to the world of luxury fashion, initiated by the creative director of Balmain Olivier Rousteing’s request for him to develop the brand’s sound identity, and later with collaborations for Alexander Wang, Balenciaga, Lancôme, Versace and ASOS. In 2016, he released his first music tracks on the Defected label and in August 2018 dropped his first album One Trick Pony. Kiddy Smile recently appeared in Gaspard Noé’s latest film Climax.