Conference - Agnès in conversation with Thomas Schlesser

Les Conversations d'Agnès and Hôtel de Paris Saint-Tropez welcome Thomas Schlesser, author of the novel "Les Yeux de Mona".

"What counts in art is not the art itself, but the existential significance of art", says Thomas Schlesser, art historian, director of the Hartung-Bergman Foundation, professor at the École Polytechnique and author of a book-phenomenon: "Les Yeux de Mona" (Mona's Eyes), published in July 2024 by Albin Michel. The book sold 350,000 copies in France and 600,000 in Europe, and is set to conquer America in September 2025. A book that will be adapted to film within the year. A book that fulfills its publisher's risky prediction "The French novel that conquered the world", as it was written on a banner encircling this beautiful 500-page baby before it was even released! Magical? No, because it's deeply sincere and human. No, because it stems from a deep pain - "a valley of tears" - delicately evoked by the author. No, because beyond its personal dimension, it has this universal scope contained in what runs through it, its aim: art at the service of life, art that enlightens life and sometimes (often) sustains it, particularly when a little 9-year-old girl, Mona, is in danger of losing her sight and her grandfather, Dadé, decides to take her by the hand to take her to the Louvre, then to Orsay and Beaubourg, so that she can encounter the Beauty of the world.

And, above all, to impress her, at the rate of one work a week, and enable her to elevate herself in the truest sense of the word.
More than a book, this novel is an experience. An experience in which, you are, I am Mona.

So, for this first conversation of the summer: Let yourself be carried away!

Saturday 19 April 2025 at 7.30 pm.

Free entry.