RAMOGE is exhibiting the most beautiful pictures of its international photography competition ‘Man and the Sea’ on the gates of the Saint-Martin garden in Monaco-Ville.
As part of its awareness-raising activities, the RAMOGE Agreement organised in 2022 a photography competition around the theme ‘Man and the Sea’.
Lovers of the sea and photography were invited to compete in four categories: ‘Free theme’, ‘Man and the Sea’, ‘RAMOGE Zone’, which extends from Marseille to La Spezia, and ‘Youth’, dedicated to photographers under 21 years old.
Organised as part of the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP), the competition has been deemed a great success, attracting nearly 600 photographers from 65 different countries who submitted 3,370 photos.
In each category, the three best photographs were selected by an internationally renowned jury composed of Ricardo Busi (President of FIAP), Sergio Pitamitz (Environmental Photojournalist of the Year – NPPA, 2016) and Greg Lecoeur (Nature Photographer of the Year – National Geographic, 2016).
The public are welcome to discover the 12 most beautiful award-winning photographs of this competition until 26th February on the gates of the Saint-Martin garden in Monaco-Ville.
All the photographs, including the winners, can be viewed on the RAMOGE website: ramoge.org.
Monaco’s shift to digital administration has taken another step forward with a new tool allowing people to file for or renew trademark protection forms online.
The Department of Economic Expansion has announced that legal residents and citizens of Monaco can now ensure their intellectual property rights are safeguarded and registered properly via the Intellectual Property Division’s website.
Located under the e-service brands header, the site gives users round-the-clock accessibility, step-by-step online assistance, on-the-spot tax calculations and clear traceability of the filing with an automatically generated email that lists the filer’s national number, date, payments made and other pertinent information regarding the application. Additionally, the costs are shown upfront, and secure online payment options are available to protect users’ privacy.
Whilst intended for people who live in Monaco, there is also a possibility of using this system if a Monegasque agent is attached to the application. A listing of these agents can be found here.
In a major coup for Monaco, Hauser & Wirth is showing ‘The World We Make’ by one of the world’s most exciting contemporary portraitists, Amy Sherald, whose mission to reinsert African Americans into the art historical canon is winning praise the world over.
On the back of a wildly successful major exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London, Amy Sherald is enjoying her first solo show in Europe, kicking off with a selection of new and monumental works at Hauser & Wirth Monaco entitled ‘The World We Make’.
From now until 15th April, the gallery, located in One Monte-Carlo, is featuring a selection of Sherald’s works created specifically for this European showing.
“Amy talks about when she first went to a museum, she didn’t see any subjects that looked like her. So, her goal is for kids like her to walk into a museum, to see her portraits and see themselves represented in a really important public space like a museum,” explains the gallery’s Alice Haguenauer. “We had a great response in London, and hopefully now in Monaco.”
Amy Sherald is famous for presenting her portraits of Black Americans in a way that confronts the tradition of social portraiture, a tradition that for too long has excluded the black men, women, families and artists whose lives have been inextricably linked to the social and political narratives.
She rose to fame during the Black Lives Matter movement, but not for the obvious reason. Rather than politicising her work, Sherald portrays her subjects in peaceful moments, as a snapshot of their daily lives; they maintain a sense of privacy and mystery, drawing the viewers’ attention to their lives, hopes and dreams.
“Black artists feel that they have to insert something political into their work and make a statement about being black, whereas with Amy Sherald, these subjects just command their own space,” says Haguenauer.
Sherald’s work is truly intriguing. She humanises the black experience by depicting her subjects in both historically recognisable and everyday settings, like the painting ‘For love, and for country’ (2022). It is a recreation of the iconic photograph ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ (1945) by Alfred Elsenstaedt showing a US Navy sailor kissing a woman in Times Square, New York City, as Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II. But in Sherald’s work, both the sailor and the woman are represented as black men, reminding us of the discrimination against non-heterosexual people within the US Military in recent history, and the way black soldiers were treated when they returned from the war.
In other works, Amy Sherald, a 49-year-old African American artist born in Georgia, United States, plays with traditional American symbology through the portrayal of vehicles, such as motorbikes and tractors, with the peaceful juxtaposition of man to comment on the typical traits of masculinity. In a large-scale diptych entitled ‘Deliverance’ (2022), Amy Sherald, inspired by the bike culture in Baltimore where she lived, reflects on the freedom of riding. It shows two bikers in mid-air, suspended in time, a space free from oppression.
For this, her first European solo show, Amy Sherald specifically had in mind the history of European portraiture and art, so you can see these subtle references in her works. ‘Deliverance’ (pictured above) is reminiscent of an equestrian portrait, but the noble white man posing gallantly on the back of a horse is replaced by a black man straddling a motorbike. Every detail is shared with the viewer, right down to the reflection of Sherald’s studio in one of the rider’s helmets.
As Sherald says, “The works reflect a desire to record life as I see it and as I feel it. My eyes search for people who are and who have the kind of light that provides the present and the future with hope.”
The painting ‘Kingdom’ (2022), showing a young child at the top of a slide, both asks us to look positively at future generations whilst reminding us of the transient nature of childhood and the vulnerabilities inherent to it.
Amy Sherald’s subjects are normally strangers, but a milestone in her career came in 2018 when she was commissioned to paint a portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama. That iconic piece of history now hangs in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Michelle Obama herself said, as someone who did not come from the sort of family that had members sit for portraits, that she sought out Sherald to translate what being the first black first lady meant to her.
Amy Sherald’s portraits of former First Lady Michelle Obama (left) and Breonna Taylor for the cover of Vanity Fair (right)
The artist was also commissioned to paint a portrait of Breonna Taylor, the African American woman who was brutally killed by police in the United States in 2020, which was used for the September 2020 cover of Vanity Fair. Sherald’s work became a springboard for conversation around the killing of innocent black people by police, but not because Breonna Taylor was politicised in this portrait. The posthumous depicts the 26-year-old standing tall in a flowing turquoise gown while wearing the engagement ring that her boyfriend never got to give her.
Amy Sherald always paints her subjects in the same taupe variant of grayscale to remove the discourse around skin colour and draw the viewers’ attention to the composition of the painting, its meaning, and the individuality of the subject, attacking the notion of obsession with skin colour.
“Their faces are still the first things you look at, even though they’re muted or grey, and it’s because they’re surrounded by that colour,” she explains in a monograph published by Hauser & Wirth to accompany this travelling exhibition. “You’re drawn to their eyes, and you’re able to have a one-on-one dialogue with this person that you don’t know. They are there to meet your gaze, and not just to be passive. Some portraits are just passive, you’re there, and you’re just looking at the subject, but my subject’s here to meet you. To be present with you in that moment.”
As the name of her exhibition suggests, Amy Sherald is asking the public to rethink ‘The World We Make’.
She is offering a new perspective, a different world, in which African Americans are seen, heard and understood as individuals, separate to the social and political chaos that may surround them.
Her portraits now hang in more than 20 of America’s most important art institutions and, after European museums purchased all of the works in her recent London show, Amy Sherald is now set to upturn the art scene here.
The artist, who had a heart transplant at the age of 39, says that she believes now is her time.
“I’m living this moment: I wake up every day, and I have to make sure that my work continues to speak to generations. I need to make things that are going to resonate in that way. But I also truly believe in who I am as a human. I believe in my power. I believe in timing. I believe that this is my ‘now’, and that nothing can go wrong now. I understand that as a fact.”
Spot checks of online retailers by the EC and its consumer protection partners have revealed that many are still using practices intended to trick consumers into making purchases.
An inspection of 399 online shops by the European Commission (EC) and the national consumer protection authorities of 23 EU member states plus Norway and Iceland, known collectively as the CPC Network, has found that 148 are using manipulative practices aimed at misleading purchasers.
Some of the methods, often referred to as dark patterns, include the use of fake countdown timers that suggest to buyers that their desired item will be gone if not bought straight away as well as web interfaces designed to pressure consumers into purchases, subscriptions or other possibly unwanted choices. The worst method, found in 70 cases, was the use of hidden information that could affect the cost of the products being sold, including huge delivery charges.
The sweep also included the apps of 102 websites screened, 27 of which also deployed at least one of these three categories of dark patterns.
“Our screening shows that nearly 40% of the online shopping websites rely on manipulative practices to exploit consumers’ vulnerabilities or trick them,” Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders says. “This behaviour is clearly wrong and against consumer protection.”
The CPC Network and other relevant authorities will now contact the traders and give them a chance to come into compliance or take additional action if national procedures deem it necessary.
“Today, we already have binding tools to help tackle such issues and I call on national authorities to make use of their enforcement capacities to take relevant action and fight these practices,” Reynders adds. “In parallel, the Commission is reviewing all consumer legislation to ensure it is fit for the digital age, including to assess whether dark patterns are adequately covered.”
Manchester City and Manchester United both progressed in the FA Cup over the weekend, Liverpool’s trouble continued and non-league side Wrexham will face a replay against Sheffield United. The two Manchester clubs are the clear favourites to win this year’s competition, with challengers Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all out.
Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal – Pep Guardiola’s side have had a tough run so far. They narrowly overcame Chelsea in the third round, and then had to face Premier League leaders Arsenal in the fourth round. Nathan Aké’s goal proved the difference, and their reward is an easier tie against Bristol City.
Brighton 2-1 Liverpool – Within the context of the season, this result wasn’t a massive shock. The Seagulls have looked brilliant, firstly under Graham Potter, and more recently under Roberto De Zerbi. Karou Mitoma’s injury-time winner allows Brighton to progress, at the expense of Liverpool, who now only have the Champions League to compete for this season.
Preston 0-3 Tottenham – Antonio Conte’s side may not be at their best at the moment, but they have an outside shot of silverware this season. A Heung-Min Son double put Tottenham on their way to victory. Manchester City and Manchester United will be favourites to life the trophy at Wembley at the end of the season, but Tottenham are certainly in with a shot.
Walsall 0-1 Leicester City – Whilst Leicester’s woes in the league continue, the former Premier League champions are relying on the cup for a bit of respite. Kalechi Iheanacho scored the only goal of the game to give the Foxes a slender victory.
Wrexham 3-3 Sheffield United – The Welsh side, owned by Hollywood pair Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, almost pulled off the shock of the round by beating Championship side Sheffield United. Wrexham aren’t even in the football league, but their championship opponents had to rely on a John Egan goal late in stoppage time to force a replay.
Elsewhere, Premier League sides West Ham United, Southampton and Leeds United progressed. There will be a number of replays after a spate of draws: Sheffield Wednesday, Fleetwood Town, Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham, Ipswich Town, Burnley, Luton Town, Grimsby Town, Fulham and Sunderland will all have to play again in order to secure their place in the next round.
Manchester United versus West Ham United is currently the standout fixture of the next round of the cup, although due to the sheer number of replays that will be taking place, many ties are yet to be decided.
These are the last weeks to enjoy the Roller Station at the Stade Nautique on Port Hercule.
After a successful launch on 2nd December 2022, the Mairie de Monaco has decided to extend the run of the roller station rink until Sunday 26th February.
The Roller Station has taken up residence at the Stade Nautique Rainier III, in the location normally occupied by the swimming pool, and replaces the winter ice rink which had been sidelined this year due to the energy savings.
For those without their own equipment, roller skates are available on site for visitors.
