Men are more than twice as likely to be independent contractors as women in Monaco, according to the latest figures by IMSEE. The new report also highlights some other interesting trends.
At the end of 2020, Monaco had 5,297 active self-employed workers representing 5,723 open activities. These indicators are up by more than 3% compared to the calendar year ending December 2019, reveals statistics body IMSEE in its new report.
Photo source: Pixabay
The 3rd edition of the Garden Festival of the Côte d’Azur starts this weekend, featuring beautiful designs from landscape artists throughout the world in a series of displays spread across the French Riviera.
The Garden Festival of the Côte d’Azur opens on 9th May under this year’s theme of ‘Artist’s Garden’.
The artists use plants and organic materials to produce innovative and spell-binding creations using the allotted 200m2 of space on offer.
Monaco’s display by Timothée Roche is already on show on the terraces of the Monte-Carlo Casino.
Thirty-eight candidates were pre-selected back in September 2020, and have since been narrowed to 13 finalists. Seven total prizes are up for grabs.
The applications received were from countries all over the word, including France, Italy, United States, Poland, United Kingdom, China, Sweden, Spain, Finland and Belgium. The finalists are comprised of eight entries from France, three from Italy and one each from Finland and Hong Kong.
The entries will be spread around the region for a month in Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Grasse, Cannes, and Menton offering an open-air museum to be enjoyed by all.
The Festival runs from 9th May to 9th June.
READ ALSO: Monaco’s contribution to the Gardens of Artists
Espinasse 31 Contemporary Art Gallery has brought the works of Tomoko Nagao and Robi Walters to the Principality for the first time with an exhibition at the Meridien Hotel.
The exhibition, titled High Chroma / High Vigour, features Milanese-based Japanese artist Tomoko Nagao and London born and bred artist Robi Walters.
The works have been curated by Antonio and Thomas Castiglioni, and bring together the two artists, highlighting their unique styles and expressive vitality.
“The exhibition is an exploration of fundamental properties of art—colour, material, dimensionality, symbolism—and how they make us feel. High Chroma / High Vigour creates a space in which Tomoko and Robi’s creations coexist and balance each other, focusing on their common expression of energy through colourful displays,” explains the gallery.
Art is meant to evoke emotion, say the organisers, and to this end the exhibition hopes that visitors view the works through their relationship with the artist rather than as objects to be simply looked at.
Tomoko Nagao is known as one of the leading figures in the international Micropop art movement. She started studies in her home country of Japan before moving on to London where she attended the Chelsea College of Art. This is where her personal style was developed, and her popularity has been on the rise ever since, boasting shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as various events in Italy and Japan.
She takes aim at consumerism by referencing high-end luxury brands and corporations, reminding audiences of “the energetic brightness in symbols of capitalism, such as advertisements.”
Robi Walters is a contemporary artist based in Soho, London. His colourful collages have attracted the attention of celebrity collectors such as Thandie Newton, Usain Bolt and Jillionaire, to name a few.
In 2018, Michelin-Star Chef Tom Kerridge commissioned Walters to create bespoke works for his restaurant Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at London’s Corinthia Hotel. In 2020, he was invited by Aston Martin to become their artist in residence. Walters has been named by The Telegraph as one of the top creatives in the UK, going on to win the ‘Arts and Culture’ category in the newspaper’s ‘Amazing 15’.
Walters’ work has encapsulated the spirit of transformation. By constructing mixed-media pieces with unusual materials, such as packaging from household items and broken vinyl LPs, he focuses on the practice of taking discarded objects and making them beautiful to revivify their intrinsic worth—with a creative process and product that is reminiscent of both pop art and arte povera movements.
Both artists works are hopeful and vibrant, mirroring the new hope of a return to normalcy in daily life after more than a year of pandemic conditions.
The exhibit will be on display at the Meridien Hotel until 7th June.
Photo by Espinasse 31 Contemporary Art Gallery
Getting around Monaco is about to get whole a lot easier with the launch of Monapass, an all-in-one mobility app.
The Monegasque government, in collaboration with the Compagnie Autobus de Monaco (CAM) and the Mairie, are introducing Monapass, a one-stop-shop for all modes of transport in the Principality.
Developed by the department of Environmental Equipment and Urban Planning and the Interministerial Delegation in charge of the Digital Transition, the interface will be used to link all transportation options in one digital place, offering users the chance to find what they need in just a few clicks.
Buses, electric bicycles and public road parking will be covered in the app, allowing users to find maps, subscription choices and payment options, as well as real-time traffic information and route suggestions.
The app is free to all and users can now use it to access their MonaBike account and current tickets, as well as convert their CAM subscription into a digital pass. Single-trip tickets can also be paid for on the app.
Up-to-the-minute information directing users to the nearest means of transport, including transit timetables and the closest bike stations, are available, as well as the means to pay for road parking on the spot.
For CAM users, this app allows them to integrate flawlessly into CAM’s new ticketing system. In addition to being able to make payments on the app, the new system allows for contactless debit card payments to be made on the bus, gives the best prices based on former trips made, and for Pass Sud Azur holders, a “zonal multimodal subscription” for the Alpes Maritimes and Monaco, which was launched in 2020, to easily purchase and validate their ticket in the Principality.
Photo by Michael Alesi / Government Communication Department
The Principality of Monaco is establishing a national institution to earmark, store and protect contemporary archives of public interest, which will one day be used to write the history of Monaco.
The National Archives Prefiguration Mission was created by the Sovereign Order of 25th March 2021. The objective is to constitute a State service entirely devoted to archives of public interest with heritage value, at the disposal of the government, Monegasques, residents, and researchers. The steering work has beenentrusted to Michaël Bloche, graduate of the National School of Charters, Heritage Curator and Doctor of History.
The heritage documents emanating from the government until the Constitution of 1911 will remain in the Archives of the Prince’s Palace.
Now, given the Sovereign Ordinance that considerably broadens the scope of public archives, a further step has been taken. In addition to the executive services of the State, the archives of the National Council, the Diocese, the Directorate of Judicial Services, the Municipality, independent administrative authorities and other bodies governed by public law which do not have legal personality will come under the guardianship of the national institution.
Also involved are public establishments and private law bodies responsible for a concession, a public service delegation, or a mission of general interest, such as the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), notaries and bailiffs.
For archives of heritage value, this new definition has important implications in terms of support for management, inventory and disposal.
With its scientific and technical competence, the mission’s priority objective is to sensitize the producers of archives of public interest to the richness of their material, so that they are well preserved while avoiding anyunfortunate destruction.
It should guarantee a better valuation of the materials which will make it possible to write the contemporary history of the Principality, mainly of the 20th and 21st centuries, but also of the 19th century via certain producers, outside the executive services of the State, for example the SBM.
The Mission is also responsible for proposing, in the coming years, legislation on archives, in order to harmonise very diverse practices from one producer to another while developing digital archiving, in collaboration with the Interministerial Delegation responsible for the Digital Transition and the Monegasque Digital Security Agency.
Photo source: Pixabay
People who have been vaccinated in France will now be issued with a QR code that will be used to create their ‘health pass’ for travel and leisure.
From Monday this week, vaccinated patients began receiving an attestation de vaccination Covid-19 or vaccination certificate.
The certificate comes with a QR code that can be scanned into France’s Covid tracking app TousAntiCovid to generate a “vaccine pass” that can be eventually scanned and verified at certain establishments, venues and at border crossings. The app is currently used to scan Covid test results, but may evolve to become the ‘health pass’.
An example of the certificate was shared by doctor and medical writer Jimmy Mohammed on Twitter, who said, “Vaccination certificates certified with QR code are coming! Then scan on AntiCovid! The health pass is gradually being implemented and this is good news”.
Les attestations de vaccination certifiées avec QR code arrivent ! A scanner ensuite sur AntiCovid ! Le pass sanitaire se met progressivement en place et c’est une bonne nouvelle. pic.twitter.com/SomDqSZIvn
— Dr Jimmy Mohamed (@Dr_moji) May 3, 2021
For those who have already had their inoculation, the certificate will be made available to them later this month via the online Ameli account, according to Digital Affairs Minister Cedric O. For those without an Ameli account, he asks that they go online to www.ameli.fr and register using details from their carte vitale.
It is not yet clear what will be the case for those who have been inoculated but don’t possess a carte vitale.
Access to where?
French President Emmanuel Marcon has so far cited two specific activities that will require the new health pass by June, namely travel from non-EU countries including the United States, and domestically for access to large events such as concerts, festivals and sports matches. The government has stipulated it will not be required for daily undertakings such as going to the gym or to a café.
Sorting out how international travel will work is still in the infant stages, with a few complications to be taken into consideration. First is whether the apps and certificates will translate outside of France with the apps from other countries. The second sticking point involves individual rules and agreements that other nations have with regard to health passports.
The EU is currently working on its own app, dubbed the ‘Digital green pass’, which it is hoping to launch in June, and will have the same options as the French one but will also include a medical certificate for people who have recently recovered from the virus.
For travel outside the EU, no one is yet sure how it will pan out.
On Monday, France’s transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebarri told LCI Radio, “We are going to negotiate with partners, such as the Americans, bilateral agreements that will allow us to travel to each other’s countries.”
Officials are looking at a 9th June introduction of the vaccine pass, unless the health situation worsens, and until then, the same 72-hour negative PCR test rules apply, even with vaccinations.
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