Royal Bridges’ Managing Director, Baron Henri Estramant, Ann-Caroline Prazan, Guerlain’s Artistic Director, artist Rashid Al Khalifa and Princess Esther Kamatari, Guerslain’s Brand Ambassador.
By Rashid Al Khalifa
3 May – 8 June 2018, Maison Guerlain, 68 Champs-Élysées, FR-75008 PARIS
In 1777, the Count d’Artois (himself later the last “King of France” as Charles X), a younger brother to King Louis XVI, accepted Queen Marie-Antoinette‘s challenge to build a small château, indeed a maison de plaisance from the decaying Domaine de Bagatelle located in the Bois de Boulogne, in the outskirts of Paris, within but hundred days. Queen Marie Antoinette wanted to indulge a jolly moment there before the Royal Court had to move to the regal Domaine of Fontainebleau.
Unbelievably the resourceful Count d’Artois won the bet, for the residence was completed in merely sixty-four days. Marie Antoinette was 100 000 pounds poorer as a consequence.
Recorded as strikingly elegant by contemporaries, cosy for its visitors and joyful in atmosphere, the entrance to the château’s façade bears the inscription in Latin Parva sed apta or in English “Small but suitable”. And thus can one describe the “folie d’Artois”, renowned for its romantic scenery, its exquisite rose garden as well as the soothing pink pastel colours of the château’s walls.
Lush gardens were subsequently expanded, and trees planted since the end of the XVIII century, including oaks, pines, sequoia and cedars. Numerous statues, a Chinese pagoda, small bridges and grottoes adorn the panorama. Roses, irises, perennials, clematises, peonies are in abundance throughout the area that is now one of Paris’ four botanical gardens. Intrinsically linked to France’s royal and imperial heritage, the Maison Guerlain has also drawn inspiration from this magnificent “folie d’Artois” for the production of verily French fragrances. In fact, in 1983 the Parc de Bagatelle, inspired Jean-Paul Guerlain‘s scent “Le Jardin de Bagatelle”, when he envisioned what he uttered to be “an irresistible melody for a fulfilled and spontaneous woman in love”.
Similarly, artist Rashid Al Khalifa‘s recent series “Roses de Bagatelle” was galvanised by the Château de Bagatelle’s flowery landscape, its pastel colours and joie de vivre; thereby calling to the beholder’s minds the garden’s scents, the flora combined with a sense of everlasting joyfulness, and savoir vivre inherited for the amusement and delight of generations to come.
A continuation from the iconic convex form that takes precedence as the foundation of Rashid’s work, each piece in this series employs delicate and intricately crafted aluminium flowers onto the curved, matte-enamelled surface in patterns. The resulting symmetrical compositions further demonstrate Rashid’s desire to formulate statements on minimalism, purity and balance, this time including natural representations of roses upon the foreground.
Interestingly, each work is distinguishable by their pattern, or by the number of roses that adorn their surface. Yet this number is not an indication of the authority of an individual piece, just as a single rose holds no less value than a bouquet of roses- it’s value is dependent on the context within which it is presented.
Works from previous series will also be exhibited at the Maison Guerlain that typify Rashid’s œuvre; representations of time, dimension, space and light where a circle presides over the form. Ambiguous and inherent of a sense of mystery, the surface of each work reflects varying states of consciousness, mediations of an artist in his move towards minimalism.
————-
About the artist, Rashid Al Khalifa
Rashid Al Khalifa was born the land of the Garden of Eden, Bahrain in 1952. He began painting at the age of 16 and had his first solo exhibition at the Dilmun Hotel, Bahrain back in 1970. He travelled to the UK in 1972 where he attended the Brighton and Hastings Art College in Sussex and trained in Arts and Design. Back in Bahrain in 1978, he took his cues from European impressionist masters. He was preoccupied with painting desert landscapes that exemplify the beautiful luminosity and mysterious spatial effects that he was able to conjure through his art-schooled technique. He showcased his magnificent landscapes at the Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C., USA and the Sheraton Hotel, Bahrain (1982).
Rashid Al Khalifa was the first president of Bahrain Arts Society, and currently holds the function therein as “Honorary President”. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally. Solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery, Dubai (2018), Shuman Arts Organisation, Amman, Jordan (1997), De Caliet Gallery, Milan, Italy, and El Kato Kayyel Gallery, Milan (1996). His work as also been featured in group exhibitions such as La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2017 and 2015), Third Mediterranean Biennale, Sakhnin Valley (2017), Bahrain Arts Society, Manama, Bahrain (2016), Royal Bridges, Dubai (2016), tRIO Bienal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015), Issoudin Museum, Issoudin, France (2015), Galerie Gmurzynska, Art Basel Miami Beach (2010) Bahrain National Musuem, Manama (2002), Taipei Art Exhibition, Tapei, Taiwan (1999), Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE (1999), and Art America Exhibition, Miami, USA (1997).
About the Maison Guerlain
Since 1828, Guerlain explores, innovates and perfects fragrances, skincare products and makeup. Guerlain is a luxury house of daring creators, producing mythical creations with timeless savoir-faire. A ‘Culture of Beauty’ is its signature. During the II French Empire, Guerlain was a purveyor to the Imperial Court under Emperor Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie.
For the last twelve years Guerlain began a partnership with the Foire internationale d’art contemporain (Fiac), sponsors the Design Award of Daniel and Florence Guerlain as well as the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP).
Particular exhibitions and art collaborations are meant to highlight Guerlain’s patronage for beauty and artistic creation.
For more information:
Homepage of Rashid Al Khalifa: https://
Royal Bridges: http://royalbridges.org/home/
Wikipedia profile: http://en.wikipedia.
http://www.diplomatmagazine.
Art Bahrain: http://artbahrain.
In looking at the state of international relations today, even when it can be judged that multilateralism suffers from the erosion inflicted by a growing nationalism, I consider that erosion to be only temporary. Although there are many tasks pending, as you surely have been able to appreciate, there is one that I consider essential. In the systematization of international justice much more work is still pending concerning the task of homologation of practice and jurisprudence, so to ensure consistency. The outbreak of decisions by all kinds of courts and tribunals, national and international, makes certain aspects of international justice, and international law at large, inconsistent or conflicting, which in turn undermines legal certainty, and when there is no legal certainty, confidence in the justice system is lost.
This situation forces us to develop a true institutionalization of international justice, the last stop of a process of systematization, in other words, the establishment of a permanent and universal institutional architecture of international law, to ensure its consistency, and thereby strengthen legal security.
Whether this is a task of the United Nations, or whether States spontaneously are willing to organize themselves to create a supranational structure that achieves that goal, is something that is subject to debate. In fact, the United Nations International Law Commission is an example of the organizational effort in that regard, and its work has been remarkable. However, the task is still far from complete.
This is not a matter of creating bureaucracy by the bureaucracy itself. It is the establishment of an international authority tasked with the overall management of international justice. Someone will say that this international authority already exists, which is the International Court of Justice.
Although the ICJ fulfills the role of being the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, it does not fulfill the criterion of being an international authority for overall justice management. First, the ICJ does not possess compulsory universal jurisdiction. Second, its competence (other than its jurisdiction) is also restricted since, for example, it cannot resolve a multitude of disputes between States due to the existence of limitations ratione temporis and ratione personae. Nor does it have codification authority, although it has the power to interpret existing international law, be this codified or its general principles.
And while this latter characteristic makes the ICJ the most relevant judicial body worldwide, it lacks other indispensable functions of an authority for international justice, like the fact that its judicial sentences cannot be truly enforced by it. While judicial decisions must be observed in good faith, and courts cannot become on the ground law enforcers, there is a void because even good faith is subject to the interpretation and the temperature of international politics. Whilst the Charter of the United Nations gives a degree of attribution of law enforcement to the Security Council, this attribution, we know, is in fact a euphemism because, with very few exceptions, the Security Council is strictly a political body dominated by geopolitical interests, whose inability to act is manifest.
I conclude by observing that the idea of creating a permanent institution of international justice, with compulsory universal jurisdiction, with no jurisdictional limit, capable of enforcing judicial decisions without political interference, and which also contributes to the systematization of international law, seems a fantasy. However, in defense of this idea, I note that only 25 years ago to think that humanity would have a permanent International Criminal Court, which would judge the worst crimes against humanity, with no opposable immunity of heads of State, and which recognized the central role of victims within the system, was nothing short of an eccentricity. And yet here we are, nearly 20 years since the adoption of the Rome Statute, with 124 States Parties, with more than 10 years of judicial work of the International Criminal Court, with a number of historical judgments already handed down, and presided by a remarkable Ibero-American judge: Ms. Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi.
In the excellent opportunity that we have today, I invite to debate, to criticize constructively, and to propose how to build a robust system of international law.
——-
About the author:
* Sergio Ugalde is the Ambassador of Costa Rica to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has been his country’s advocate and co-agent before the International Court of Justice in six cases, has been invited to be speaker and lecturer on international law, including at the Hague Academy of International Law, and is currently the Vice-President of the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court. He is also the Chairman of the Hague Working Group of the Bureau of the International Criminal Court.