#hello_monaco weekend: what to do on October 24th and October 25th

Weekends is a great time time to be in Monaco with lots of things to do. And if by chance you haven’t made any plans yet, here are a few ideas what you could do.

This weekend the Stamps and Coins Museum is holding an exceptional exhibition of very rare and beautiful old coins, accompanied by archival documents and precious historical works “The Principality of Monaco and Trade with the Levant at the Time of the Luigini (17th Century)”.

Under the reign of Louis XIV, for a dozen years, Princes Honoré II and Louis I were the most enterprising players in an economic and commercial policy developed with the Ottoman Empire, then called the “Levant”, now reduced to Turkey. Even before the end of the Franco-Spanish war consecrated by the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, Prince Honoré II of Monaco had established commercial contacts with the authorities of the Levant. From 1662, Colbert, who had succeeded Nicolas Fouquet as “French Minister of Finance”, organized an ingenious system in which the Princess of Dombes, a first cousin of Louis XIV, as well as Prince Louis I of Monaco, would be closely associated by issuing monies required for commercial transactions.

The reality would exceed the objectives pursued by the initiators of the project. The Turks were so infatuated with coins showing the portrait of the Princess of Dombes that they overvalued them and paid them up to twice their issue value, turning them into a commodity. As a result, Louis I of Monaco and then the Genoese and Tuscan lords of the Ligurian Coast massively minted millions of small silver coins, later called luigini showing imitated portraits of that of the Princess of Dombes. Some unscrupulous speculators even cheated on the weight and title of their knockoffs in order to maximize their profit. This proliferation of poor quality luigini determined the Ottoman authorities to ban its circulation in 1669-1670. And this interesting story brought to life this prestigious exhibition.

Great Season Series: continue with a concert by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, with Martha Argerich, piano on Saturday 24 October 2020, at 8 pm in Auditorium Rainier III.

On the programme: Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky.

Another music event this weekend is the 6th International Organ Cycle with Silvano Rodi, organ, and Joseph Lia, baryton, organised by the ‘Association In Tempore Organi with COM.IT.ES and Fondation K on Sunday 25 October 2020, at 4 pm in Eglise Sainte-Dévote.

Organized by the Direction des Affaires Culturelles de Monaco, the exhibition of filmed portraits made in Monaco by the French photographer Charles Fréger, recently opened at the Exhibition Hall of Quai Antoine I.

The exhibition was created in the particular context of deconfinement. The artist looks at Monaco and the different groups or communities that make up the country’s identity. Workers, athletes, pupils and artists have been filmed at a time when social distancing has become the norm. He chose to favor the moving image thus creating a greater proximity between the model and his audience.

“The portraits thus projected, on a linear wall of 26 meters, relate, for the first time in the work of Charles Fréger, more to the installation than to the exhibition of photographs” specifies Björn Dahlström, the Curator of exhibition, about this project.

There is a new exhibition in Monaco: “Profondeurs” (“Depths”), by Olivier Jude and Sylvie Laurent from Friday 16 October to Friday 6 November 2020, (Monday to Friday) from 10 am to 12 pm and from 3 pm to 6.30 pm in Maison de France.

The exposition will allow you to plunge into the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, the waters of Bali and Malaysia, as well as the Principality of Monaco and its environs.

Together with partner Sylvie Laurent, diver and model, Olivier Jude develops a different vision of underwater photography. He also presents a series of photographs about the border of land and sea and the interweaving of human architecture with the natural structure of the Mediterranean. Images of shipwrecks off the coast of the Principality of Monaco are an excellent illustration of their photography technique, designed to demonstrate the necessary protection of the maritime heritage.

The event will be held under the high patronage of His Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.

And interesting exhibition is now open in Monaco: La Peinture au défi, an exhibition encompassing 65 works of Joan Miró at Nouveau Musée National Monaco, Villa Paloma is presented from 23 September to 25 October.

The exhibition is a return for Miró to Monte-Carlo where he worked on Diaghilev’s 1932 Ballets Russes, the Jeux d` Enfants. The very painting used in the original ballet will return to Monaco for the first time, making it one of the highlights of the exhibition.

The exhibition is on view now through 25 October 2020 at Nouveau Musée National Monaco in Villa Paloma at 56 Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, Monaco.

Another exhibition on the theme “Unstable Artifices: Ceramics Stories” is on till Sunday 31 January 2021, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco – Villa Sauber.

The exhibition Artifices instables, Stories of ceramics will present a journey through inventions and experiments highlighting the diversity of shapes and decorations of ceramics, as well as its production processes. These different stages of production – the selection and preparation of clay, the shaping, the finishing, the decoration, the cooking and the enamelling – reveal, also, the « recipes » and the almost alchemic preparations which vary from one creator/inventor to the other.

And if you want to learn more about other events and exhibitions that take place in Monaco these days visit our Calendar.