L’art de la fête A conversation on the occasion of the launch of Mirà n°5

While artists have sometimes contributed to the organization of lavish parties, they have often drawn on these experiences in their work. The fifth issue of MIRÀ, the annual magazine of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, published in the fall of 2025, made this the subject of its central feature. Two of its contributors, Stéphane Boudin-Lestienne and Thierry Consigny, are invited to present their writings.

Stéphane Boudin-Lestienne will describe the decentralization of the art of celebration, which became a major means of promoting the French Riviera at the end of the 19th century. He will discuss examples such as architect Paul Tissier, who, after cutting his teeth at the Quat’Z’Arts, threw spectacular parties in Nice, and painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue, who organized memorable evenings at the Opera and the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Thierry Consigny will trace the history of the Bal de la Rose, an exceptional event that brings together the elite and international high society every year for the first major social gathering of the year in the Principality, which will celebrate its 70th edition in 2026.

Stéphane Boudin-Lestienne

Art history researcher, author, and exhibition curator, Stéphane Boudin-Lestienne teaches architecture and design history at the École Camondo Méditerranée in Toulon. Between 2002 and 2022, he curated exhibitions and publications for the Villa Noailles (Hyères) on artists associated with patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles. With a focus on interdisciplinarity, he is interested in little-known figures of the 20th-century avant-garde, such as Paul Tissier, to whom he devoted his doctoral thesis and an exhibition at the Palais Lascaris (Nice) in 2015.

Thierry Consigny

Advertising executive and writer, born in 1961. Author of La Mort de Lara (Flammarion, 2006), La Grande Vie (Flammarion, 2007), with his son Charles Consigny, Le Soleil, l’herbe et une vie à gagner (JC Lattès, 2011), and Léopoldine (Grasset, 2022). Thierry Consigny has been working with Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer since 2017, particularly in the cultural and artistic fields.

Free admission, reservations required by email: public@nmnm.mc

Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo – Hôtel des Connaisseurs
Salon Excelsior
Square Beaumarchais, Monaco

RELATED CONTENTS

MIRÀ N°5 publication