Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation - 2020 conference series

The Prince Pierre Foundation is presenting a series of encounters with a writer, a choreographer, a director, a historian and a philosopher.

The Foundation’s 2020 season, themed around creativity, is designed to showcase those who create art, culture and history, inviting them to share their experiences, motivations and commitment, and to enter into a dialogue with their audience.

The Prince Pierre Foundation is maintaining its profile outside Monaco with two scheduled conferences this year, in Rome and Paris. 

In Monaco 

Monday 20 January – 6.30 pm – Variety Theatre 

“Writing is like living, it comes crashing down on you like a bolt of lightning”

Susie Morgenstern, author and illustrator

“That’s what happened to me when I was young. Straight away, I loved pencils, paper, notebooks, stationery. Passionately! For me, they had a magic power: I could capture everything I saw, everything I felt in my notebooks. I could cry without making a sound. I could make an inanimate sheet of paper laugh. (...) And then, I was God! I could make my enemies disappear and create a perfect world. Yes, I truly possessed a magic power! I’d love to share my passion with you. I can tell you that there’s no secret to becoming a writer: you just have to write!

Monday 3 February – 6.30 pm – Variety Theatre

Dancing through life

Jean-Christophe Maillot, director and choreographer of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo

Interviewed by Laura Cappelle, journalist and sociologist

What sets a choreographer apart is that they depend on others to create things: from set design to the performers, not forgetting the music, their working process requires teamwork.

In dialogue with a journalist, Jean-Christophe Maillot will talk about his love of collaboration as well as the roots of his artistic work, and what motivates it. From the idea for a work to the evolution of his inspiration over the decades and the transformations of his ballet company, he discusses classical choreography today, and considers the personal and professional transitions he has lived through. A dive deep under the skin of the creative process of one of the best known and most prolific choreographers of his generation.

Monday 23 March – 6.30 pm – Variety Theatre 

Cinema: an art of ellipsis

Arnaud Desplechin, director

Interviewed by Jacques Kermabon, film critic

We sometimes imagine the role of the cinema to be that of showing people, bodies, places, actions, relationships – a whole package where the viewer’s enjoyment is said to be the pleasure of watching without being seen. The work of a director might therefore be said to largely involve creating a plausible fictional world in which the viewer can believe or even one that they can identify with.

Using clips from his films to illustrate his points, Arnaud Desplechin will talk to Jacques Kermabon about the specific challenges of this confrontation with filmed content as it is found on a film set, before reaching its final form through the editing process.

“When we make something,” he says, “we do it with intuition, and for me, it is the actors who are of paramount importance; cameras are placed in such a way as to minimise disruption to them, to the need not to film too many takes, but to film enough. There are many strategies which are used, it’s like a theatre set.”

This conference is being organised in partnership with the Audiovisual Institute of Monaco.

Abroad 

Wednesday 8 April – 6.30 pm – Embassy of Monaco – Rome

Reviving hygiene standards in the 20th century: the contributions of Prince Albert I of Monaco

Georges Vigarello, historian

At the beginning of the century of Prince Albert I, Monaco was exemplary in its adoption of hygiene practices and advocacy of cleanliness. The country’s approach was considered to be strikingly modern.

The Prince’s most distinctive hallmark was his influence on international thinking. His opening address at the Congress of Monaco on promoting the development of the spa, seaside, climate and alpine resorts of the allied nations in 1920 focused the agenda on regaining the momentum with regard to sanitary standards, which had been severely compromised by the Great War, and on studying in depth the resources of the sea, an area in which he was a pioneer. He sang the praises of water and sunlight, denounced poorly managed industrial operations and emphasised the importance of research for wellbeing and progress.

Wednesday 10 June – 8 pm – Institute of Human Palaeontology – Paris

Developments in philosophy: experiencing the differences between languages

Barbara Cassin, philosopher and philologist

While it is difficult – even impossible – to define precisely what a philosopher is, their careers always provide an insight into what has motivated them and continues to guide their thinking. During this conference, Barbara Cassin will share her work on language differences. She will talk about her relationship with language, languages and translation, based on a series of experiences and using as her starting point her love of Greek and the surprising pleasure she draws from translation, between poetry and philosophy.

This conference is being organised in partnership with Philosophical Encounters of Monaco.

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Free entry – Booking advised:

via www.fondationprincepierre.mc

or at the venue: 1 hour before the conference begins

Information: (+377) 98 98 85 15