Evoking waves and sailboats, the works of artist Jean Boghossian will be installed around the resort in the spring to celebrate the ocean and its diverse marine wildlife.
The year 2023 will be dedicated to the sea, and the tribute begins with a host of events and activities in the spring focusing on the theme “The Sea is Green”. For the occasion, Jean Boghossian, a Belgian-Lebanese artist of Armenian descent, has created a series of installations for all the establishments of Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer. “I instantly thought of the plaques that covered the Atomium, and that I had received as a gift from Diane Hennebert when she was its director, before she became head of our Boghossian Foundation. She led the restoration of this Belgian symbol of the Exposition Universelle of 1958,” Boghossian explains. The painter and sculptor, who has a special interest in the sea and the environment, set to work on these recycled plaques, which look like sails when they are displayed vertically. Now installed in the Jardins des Boulingrins, they create a sort of regatta, completed by galvanised steel plaques from the “Wave” series. Meanwhile, the sails of old sailboats flutter in front of the shops along Avenue de Monte-Carlo, and masts punctuate the pedestrian area of the Carré d’or and Beaumarchais Square. In selected locations inside the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo you can see ceramics by the artist relating to the theme of snakes and shells. The works were inspired by the collection of the Seashell Museum in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, which Jean Boghossian bought in 2016 – when the museum closed – to preserve it. “We need green oceans so the blue planet can breathe! concludes the artist.
10 March to 10 May 2023
