The Secret Files of Gilbert & George (DVD)

For the last 40 years Gilbert & George have united and divided the international art scene with equal parts insolence and elegance. Their oeuvre, with its repeating figures and reprising themes of shit, piss, blood, tears, nudity, sperm, alcohol and drugs, overturned the conventions of the twentieth century and helped to set the agenda for the twenty-first. This 35-minute film produced, hosted and edited by the influential international curator Hans Ulrich Obrist is the first documentary to follow Gilbert & George inside their creative process, and into their archives and collection. Obrist discovers the couple's intimate life within the interior of their London house, a veritable museum of obsessions. Beyond good and bad, beyond appearances and objects (negatives, books, press cuttings... ), viewers are offered unprecedented insight into the artists' methods and the forms of thinking and categorizing that make up their philosophy on art and life. Gilbert & George met and began their collaboration in 1967 in London; in 1986 they won the Turner Prize; in 2005 they represented the U.K. at the Venice Biennale; from 2007 through 2009, a retrospective of their work will be touring major museums worldwide.