(Melbourne) Wed 16 Oct 2013 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Colette’s France – her lives, her loves. Jane Gilmour in conversation with Elaine Lewis. Colette’s France, published in October by Hardie Grant books, is both a memoir and the extraordinary life story of Colette, who was as famous for her novels (Chéri, Gigi, the Claudine series) as she was for her often controversial life.
(Melbourne) Wed 24 Jul 2013 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents A City Of Love And A Terre Sauvage: French Dreams, Australian Dreams. Stephen Alomes and Sarah Turnbull in conversation with Elaine Lewis.
(Melbourne) Fri 5 Jul 2013 5:30pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Monet’s Garden: The Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. In conjunction with the NGV, the Melbourne Salon and the Institute for the Study of French Australian Relations invite you to a very special evening at the National Gallery of Victoria. Lecture by Ted Gott and exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
(Melbourne) Thu 18 Apr 2013 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents The Other Napoleon: The extravagant gas-lit Second Empire of Napoléon III. In words, music, portraits and photographs. David Hood. Following last year’s sell-out Napoleon exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, David Hood surveys the career of the “other Napoleon” (nephew of Napoléon I), who ruled France between 1848 and 1870. He rebuilt Paris, but no boulevard bears his name. He brought stability and prosperity to France, yet is almost erased from French history. Why? Alas, his erratic foreign policy (and his reign) ended in the catastrophic war with Prussia which saw France invaded and the City of Light besieged.
(Melbourne) Thu 11 Oct 2012. The Melbourne Salon presents Sites of knowledge, sites of power: the Paris Museum, collecting the world (1739-1832), Cédric Crémière. Launch of The Baudin Legacy Project, Margaret Sankey, Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby. Book launch of Discovery and Empire: French Ships in the South Seas, John West-Sooby. Book launch of Aborigènes et peuples insulaires, une histoire illustrée des premiers habitants de l’Australie, Marc Orlando. Book launch of Almost a French Australia: French-British Rivalry in the Southern Oceans, Noelene Bloomfield.
(Melbourne) Wed 18 Jul 2012 5pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Napoleon: Revolution to Empire. Lecture by Ted Gott and exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Napoleon: Revolution to Empire is a panoramic exhibition examining French art, culture and life from the 1770s to the 1820s. Its story runs from the first French voyages of discovery to Australia during the reign of Louis XV to the end of Napoleon’s leadership as first Emperor of France.
(Melbourne) Tue 17 Apr 2012 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents The current state of arts and culture in Australia and France. David Pledger in conversation with Michael Shirrefs. In times of economic upheaval and existential crisis in Europe, what is the state of European culture, especially in French-speaking countries? In times of prosperity, it’s easy for politicians to be seen as conspicuous patrons of the arts. However, when fortunes change, the arts can feel the knife very swiftly. And so culture is a most effective canary-in-the-coal-mine in times of extremis.
(Melbourne) Tue 8 Nov 2011 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Georges Perec: the Australian connection, 30 Years On. Norie Neumark, Maria Miranda and Raphaël Trantoul, chaired by Philip Thiel. The French writer Georges Perec (1936-1982) is perhaps best described as a literary experimentalist, one who was intrigued by the question of form. Almost three decades after his death, the author of La Disparition (a novel he wrote without once using the letter “e”) is recognised as one of the most influential and inventive writers of his generation.
(Melbourne) Fri 29 Jul 2011 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents The Existential Piano: Chopin, George Sand, Liszt, Marie d’Agoult and the Paris Salons. In words, music, portraits and photographs. David Hood. “Paris in the 1830s seems a golden age,” says David Hood. “Revolution at the start of the decade had ended the ancient regime, and the 1848 upheavals were yet to come.” Paris was undoubtedly the cultural capital of Europe: Frédéric Chopin from Poland and Franz Liszt from Hungary both came to meet their destinies there. “There they contracted ‘liaisons’”, he says with a smile, “with George Sand (Aurore Dudevant), an established author, and Marie d’Agoult (Daniel Stern), who became one.”
(Melbourne) Fri 15 Apr 2011 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents French storm in an Australian tea-cup: deconstructing linguistic cultural differences. Christine Béal and Kerry Mullan.
(Melbourne) Thu 9 Dec 2010 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents National Identity – French and Australian perspectives. Elizabeth Rechniewski and Tim Soutphommasane, chaired by Graeme Davison. Vive la France! Advance Australia Fair! This Salon examines the similarities, differences and the challenges of defining national identity in the French and Australian contexts.
(Melbourne) Fri 10 Sep 2010 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents The Great Australian Novel – a Panorama. Jean-François Vernay in conversation with Elaine Lewis. Jean-François Vernay is a Franco-Australian essayist based in New Caledonia, who specialises in Australian literature. Jean-François will be speaking about his latest book Panorama du roman australien: des origines à nos jours 1831-2007 (Hermann Press, 2009), which he describes as “a labour of love” which took 10 years of research. This first survey of Australian fiction aims to give European readers an overview of Australian literature, and is now available in English as The Great Australian Novel – A Panorama (published by Brolga, 2010).
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