Thomas Schlesser in conversation with Elena Garrigues

Thomas Schlesser teaches us that there are certain human wounds that cannot be healed. However, drawing on personal experiences, this French art historian and writer teaches us that art can bring us comfort in extreme situations, in such a way that it might help us take the first step towards the stages of overcoming them. Since 2014, Schlesser has been the director of the Hartun-Bergman Foundation (Antibes, France), whose main mission is to preserve the archives and objects of artists. He has just published his first novel, Lex Yeux de Mona (Mona's Eyes), after a string of essays on the history of art and aesthetics. He is also a lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. First through realism and now through fiction, He attests that an attentive look at any artistic expression is an apprenticeship to life, to its beauty, to know oneself, "to how big the small can be, to believe in miracles, to put the world on pause, that there is no weaker sex, to live the throes of death, to listen to your inner voice, to fight and persevere, that love is desire and desire is deprivation...’".

Schlesser will talk to Elena Garrigues, who works as a professor of Ethics at IE University. With deep cultural concerns, she began her career as a correspondent for several media outlets. She is a trustee in three foundations, inclusive entrepreneurship (Nantik Lum), human rights (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Spain) and aid to children and adolescents (ANAR). Isabelle Berneron, book attaché at the French Institute, will present the event.

Event in French with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish