Monaco’s electricity supply will be more secure and able to accommodate further expansion thanks to a new sub-station inaugurated by HSH Prince Albert on Monday, November 27.
More than 330 controlled explosions were necessary to dig out the rock to provide the 2,100 square metres of space to house the equipment in Monaco’s third sub-station. Use was also made of 700 square metres of a tunnel formerly used by rail operator SNCF during the building of Monaco’s underground railway station.
The project was delivered to SMEG, Monaco’s utilities company, in 2015. Monaco’s first two electrical sub-stations, in Fontvieille and on the west side of the Sainte-Dévote valley, have previously operated at 80 percent of their capacity.
The creation of this additional electric power station became necessary to ensure the economic development of the Principality, while strengthening the security of the territory’s electricity supply, the Government said.
It will serve the eastern area of the Principality and will increase Monaco’s power supply capacity by 50 percent. It will also relieve pressure on the Principality’s power supplies as the land extension project at Portier takes shape.
EDF’s subsidiary RTE manages the French public electricity transmission network and ensures the delivery of electricity to the French-Monegasque border. SMEG sends it to the power source substations, which then transforms the current into low voltage and distributes it to the user at 230 volts.
The meeting of the Monetary Agreement Committee between the European Union and Monaco was held on Monday, November 27, in the Principality, and several topics were discussed.
Chaired by Jean Castellini, Monaco’s Minister of Finance and Economy, the meeting brought together authorities for the banking and financial sector of France, the European Commission and the European Central Bank as well as the Monegasque authorities.
On the agenda: the coin programme for 2018, the regulation of the banking system, the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The meeting took place in a constructive climate, the Government said. Its full conclusions will be published by the European Commission in the annexes of the Monetary Agreement containing the update of the acquis communautaire.
A general presentation of the preparations underway for the Dubai World Expo 2020, which will take place from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021, was held this Tuesday, November 28, at Monte Carlo Bay. The theme of Dubai World Expo 2020 is “Connecting minds, building the future.”
The Monaco State Company Inter Expo (MIE) is inviting all institutional entities in the Principality to take part in this international event which will bring together more than 180 countries and provide an important showcase for Monaco.
Albert Croesi, Managing Director of MIE and General Commissioner of the Monaco Pavilion for the Exhibition, explained: “It is Monaco in 360 degrees that we wish to highlight, and all Monegasque entities are invited to take part in the event.”
He said it’s important to develop the Pavilion project in order to provide it with a structure adapted to the needs of the exhibitors from the principality. “Monaco’s objective for this new Expo is to present to the 25 million visitors expected by the organisers, all the attractions of the Principality, still unknown in this part of the world.”
At the end of this first preparatory meeting, the President of MIE and the Order of Architects of the Principality signed a working agreement, the first partnership in the principality for Dubai World Expo 2020.
A cheque for €100,000 was presented to the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation by Michaël Desjardins, the organiser of Summer Dreams, at the Prince’s Palace on November 21, as the result of a fund-raising evening held earlier this year.
This year saw the Serbian violin virtuoso Nemanja Radulovic, winner of the 2014 Victoires de la Musique competition, delighting all lovers of music and the Arts with his “Double Sens” ensemble, performing in the presence of HSH Prince Albert on July 18.
The evening concert and the dinner prepared by Monaco’s Michelin-starred organic chef, Paolo Sari, were held in support of a project run jointly the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and one of its long-standing partners, BirdLife International, aimed at the protection of penguins, with 10 out of 18 penguin species currently at risk of extinction.
BirdLife International, world leader in bird protection, was formed in 1922 and currently has a global network of 122 partners, non-governmental environmental organisations established in 120 countries.
Summer Dream evening events started in 2011, with the aim of bringing together, for an evening, talented personalities who sympathise with the environmental causes that the Foundation defends.
Ardmore’s Fée Halsted, Karen Shine, Catherine Berning and Roger Shine at Monaco Yacht Club. Photo: Monaco Life
For the first time in Monaco, an exhibit of South African Ardmore Ceramic Art, with more than 250 pieces for sale, is taking place at the private dining room at the Yacht Club.
With the support of Roger Shine, Lady Tina Green and Daniela Boutsen, the must-see show runs from Tuesday, November 28, until Thursday, November 30, and offers Monaco residents a chance to pick up an exquisite piece of hand-painted art – just in time for Christmas.
The selection, with its enchanting reflection of African playfulness, includes small salt and pepper cellars, large vases‚ teapots‚ trays‚ candle holders‚ butter dishes, jewellery boxes and textiles that range in price from €70 to €6,000.
A portion of the sale will be donated to the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation. “Over the years, I’ve bought several Ardmore pieces,” said Roger Shine, who was instrumental in bringing Ardmore to Monaco. “And since the Prince is married to Princess Charlene, who is South African and has art from Ardmore‚ I suggested an exhibition and the idea of raising money in support of the Foundation.”
Open daily from 11 am to 8 pm, visitors will also have the opportunity to meet Ardmore Ceramic founder, Fée Halsted, and her daughter Catherine Berning, who runs Ardmore Design. The family duo is as colourful and authentic as the pieces they produce, but more significantly, they are sharing the history of their country one piece of ceramic, or scarf (Ardmore has an exclusive collaboration with Hermès) at a time.
“Where I grew up in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, there was beautiful African flora and fauna. It was so rich,” Ms Halsted told Monaco Life. “And there were all these creatures, like the pangolin, that people had never heard of, so I also became very passionate about the wildlife.”
Ms Halsted explained that Ardmore’s artists are rural people. As boys, they never had stuffed toys to play with but looking after their father’s cattle all day, working with clay became natural to them and they are skillful at sculpting.
“They would model little oxen or little farm animals in clay, but they didn’t have access to the technology to create colour. Yet you see their love for colour when you look at South African bead work, which they got from Arab traders, and masks.”
For Ms Halsted, who created Ardmore Ceramics in 1985, all this “incredible creativity” is wasted in Africa because in schools, young people are taught Math and English instead of creativity.
“I know one painter who couldn’t get paint, so he took torches to plastic waste bags to make oil colours for his paintings, the most incredible oil paintings you’ve ever seen, which shows the creativity is instinctive but they can’t afford it.”
Ardmore artists with Fée
The Ardmore School teaches future ceramists about sculpting, painting, glazing and art history. The creative process involves four stages and four people are therefore involved; it is not one artist who completes a piece from start to finish. Graduates are rewarded with a certificate.
By teaching them a skill and encouraging their imagination based on nature, Zulu folklore and tradition, Ardmore Ceramics has given South Africans a chance to be entrepreneurs and be in control of their own destiny. The Ardmore artists are paid for the work they produce.
“They have the responsibility to manage the money they’ve earned. It’s not a handout. Now people can afford cars, or a taxi service so another man earns from this. Maybe a school develops. It’s about contributing back to society.”
Ardmore also does community work in prisons. “We go there and we actually teach them ceramic skills, to preoccupy them with creativity,” explained Ms Halsted, who has a degree in Fine Arts from Natal University in Pietermaritzburg, plus a two-year postgraduate course in ceramics. “So they have a future and once they come out of prison they don’t have to be on the street.”
Ardmore’s decorative storytelling designs “celebrates life” said Ms Halsted. “I’ve seen firsthand that people’s lives are tough and hard in South Africa, where they’ve been ill with HIV and AIDS. Since 2010, we haven’t had anyone die from AIDS but I’ve lost about 40 artists from the disease – talented people who didn’t have to die.
“However, through that, South Africans embellish a fantasy world, one that has transported them out of a tough life into one of beauty.”
Described by one observer as “the most extreme form of decorative pottery I’ve even seen,” Ms Halsted hopes that Ardmore Ceramics, of which each piece is individually hand-signed by the artist, will “transport you to another culture”.
Indeed it will. As you will discover this week at the Yacht Club.
The Ardmore Ceramic Art exhibition in support of the Princess Charlene Foundation is open to the public. It runs from Tuesday, November 28, until Thursday, November 30, 11 am to 8 pm, at the Yacht Club’s private dining room. Article first published November 28, 2017.
Monaco celebrates Saint Cecilia, patron Saint of musicians
Monaco’s musicians were welcomed in Monaco City Hall to celebrate the Feast of Saint Cecilia, which is celebrated in the Principality on the Sunday following National Day, November 19. A mass in the Cathedral preceded a procession through Monaco Ville of the Principality’s musicians.
It was during the fifth century that the popularity of Saint Cecilia began to develop in Rome, when her name appears in the prayers of the Mass. According to Don Lanciarez, a parish priest of Monaco in the eighteenth century, the Saint was the “patroness of musicians” in Monaco, but there is no documented evidence of a particular cult around the Saint.
A certain solemnity to the Feast was given in Monaco when the priest-composer Louis-Lazare Perruchot created the Choir of the Cathedral in 1930, and Sainte Cecilia remains the Patron Saint for the Principality’s musicians and musicians.
A statuette commemorating the Saint by the artist Zagone sits at the corner of rue Emile de Loth and the Church.
