To all art lovers: enjoy a very special encounter
My team and I will accompany you in your exploration and discovery of artists, through some truly exceptional get-togethers.
We invite you to come and share our discoveries, our personal favourites and also our visits to exhibitions and workshops.
The values that we strive to highlight: investing in Art, meeting the artists in their own environment, focusing on the relationship with the artwork but also with the human being.
2019 – Memories and testimonies, July 4, place des Arcades, Biot.
A very beautiful evening, full of festivities, to pay tribute to the artist Heidi Melano and which brought to mind those large family gatherings at weddings and other celebrations. The positive energies that flowed from the evening were incredible – emotion and enthusiasm were shared on the Arcades square….Everyone there felt it.
Projection of the documentary that retraces the creative adventure of Heidi and Lino Melano since their arrival in Biot. A true labour of memory, this documentary retraces the creative adventures of Heidi and Lino, from the moment they arrived in Biot. Interviews, testimonies and archive photos meant that the extraordinary artistic atmosphere of the 50’s could be recreated in the village.
2010 - Meeting with Gerard Economos, great French painter of Greek origin
Gérard Economos is an extraordinary artist. “He is the first painter to have directly engraved music as an art of temporality in painting, by painting his work to the sound of music. He told me his dream, to create a painting with Ennio Morricone and his magnificent music. He passed away on December 14th in 2016 and he left us this beautiful memory.
Friendship, strength, creativity, sensitivity, are words that we gladly associate with the artist Gerard Economos, whom I had the chance to accompany to Asia, Shanghai and Beijing.
Gerard Economos ! You have to see this frail man, at the base of a huge blank canvas, behind an orchestra, suddenly filling the painting with extraordinary cosmic forms as if underground magma, or the galaxies, or the marine depths, flowed from his palette while the music played.
Pierre-Henri GOURGE ON General Manager Air France-KLM
2016 – Conference-meeting with Qiu Shengxian
The Chinese artist, famous all over the world for his sculpture “Mother and Child”, has managed to integrate classical oriental art with modern concepts and has become one of the defining elements of Chinese contemporary Art.
His ‘Mother and Child’ sculpture took him to the pinnacle of his art and the artist then decided to turn to painting, with a view to renewing and transcending his art. While retaining the essential lines of sculpture, he remained strongly influenced by Chinese culture, its traditional painting, calligraphy and literature, as well as the frescoes of Dunhuang, but also the Impressionists of Western Art.
The visual result is a colourful contemporary creation with pure lines that breaks all boundaries. Here, Shengxian chose painting because it is currently the best way for him to express his feelings using the symbols of mother and child: “Art must fire the public’s imagination. Art is emotion and emotion is the driving force behind artistic creation”.
Exhibition of his works and interview at Espace Verdet, Saint-Paul de Vence, France
2014 – Poetry evening with Fariba Hachtroudi
Organisation of a “poetic” evening at the village Auditorium with the participation of the French-Iranian journalist and author Fariba Hachtroudi who recited poems from her collection « Abysses ».
A moment out of time, a wonderful evening where verses and musical notes opened the door to a new world. The French-Iranian journalist and author, Fariba Hachtroudi, who is very involved in the fight for women’s liberation, read poems from her first book of poetry. A young musician accompanied her, setting the poetry to music. Her crystal clear voice and the soft melody of the guitar charmed the audience.
« Forget
The spot on the butterfly’s wing
It is my pain that is coloured
Cobalt blue, violet, vermilion
A tear that from the sorrowful eye
Drizzles in the hollow of my breasts
The imprint of your mouth. »
2003 - Meeting in Saint Paul de Vence of two great artists, Jean Michel Folon and Piero Sbarluzzi
Jean-Michel Folon, watercolourist, artist, engraver and Belgian sculptor, on the occasion of the installation of the monumental sculpture “The Cat.”
On this memorable day he would create his first digital work – the sketch of a bird that he sent to Steve Jobs who he had met in 1983, when he drew the first logo of Apple, “Mr. Macintosh.”
My friendship with Jean Michel and his wife Paola was already strong. We accompanied them to the exhibition of his watercolours in Lucca (Italy), of his sculptures in Pietrasanta (Italy) and participated in the creation of the sets and costumes of La Bohème for the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago (Italy).
These encounters intensified in his workshop in Monte Carlo and at home in Saint Paul with Heidi Melano whom he had known for a long time. And naturally I was very involved, from the beginning to his very last work, the decoration of the chapel of the White Penitents, which was completed in 2008 after the death of the artist.
2017 – « Calligraphy and Cutting » workshop
Calligraphy is an age-old art of traditional Chinese culture: it literally translates to “the art of tracing,” the art of making letters sing with ink.
Cutting or the art of balancing and proportioning paper is highly valued because of its low cost and artistic quality. As a reflection of its philosophical origins, paper-cutting is an art form that is as complete as it is attractive. Moreover, it conveys the nature and essence of traditional culture through a unique symbolism.
Deanna Gao, a renowned Chinese artist, spoke to us at length about these extraordinary art forms, unfurling the secrets of the fine lines and the ancestral art of paper cutting with the work of the artist Zhou Shuying.
