Le Salon / Is - Salott - an innovative form of socialising

nificant others, flaneurs, swingers, tangeros, poets, writers, artists, musicians, painters, foodies, film makers, amateurs, jacks of all trades, jacks of none, the lost, the found, the jaded and the blasé, the enthusiastic and doe eyed..in short everyone. Here at Le Salon, we believe, it is who you are that counts, not what you do. You don’t actually have to produce anything or fit into any category to be an artist. You are an artist by virtue of how you express yourself, by dint of who you ARE

Why? Encouraging a new form of humanism

Inspiration / Quotes
"Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards." "The kind of conversation I like is one in which you are prepared to emerge a slightly different person." "Socrates introduced the idea that individuals could not be intelligent on their own, that they needed someone else to stimulate them. ... His idea was that if two unsure individuals were put together, they could achieve what they could not do separately: they could discover the truth, their own truth, for themselves." "The Muses were women in mythology... [who] taught you how to cultivate your emotions through the different arts in order to reach a higher plane. What is lacking now, is somewhere you can get that stimulation, not information, but stimulation where you can meet just that person, or find just that situation, which will give you the idea of invention, of carrying out some project which interests you." Venue
Besides the literary use of the (by) word as a gathering for learning and enjoyment, the name Salon itself connotes an exhibition space (for art; the Paris Salon), a venue for cosmetic treatments and grooming; for adornment and transformation (beauty and hair salons) and ultimately its primary employment as an architectural space within an abode (from which all other associations originate and derive). When we think of the word salon we think simultaneously of an intimate space for relaxation, refreshment, discussion, games, reading and hobbying and as a threshold to the outside world. The salon in its formal capacity as parlour, drawing or sitting room (as opposed to the more casual lounge or T.V room) serves as a bridge between the interior life and domesticities of a household and the formalities of the outside world. The world without may be all pervasive impinging by virtue of cable or airwaves via mobile phones, computers, radio and television but it is has always been hosted and welcomed in its human physicality, in the salon. The hallway is the impersonal no-man’s land, for tradesman, or caller, but a guest proceeds to the Salon. Here according to status the appropriate tea set, along with the family’s best face forward is exhibited to the outside element. PAST EVENTS
December 2011 - https://www.facebook.com/events/122337574546577/
February 2012 - https://www.facebook.com/events/280202542044134/
February 2013 - https://www.facebook.com/events/281399935296507/
March 2013 - First Le Salon Intimates (Merchant Street Valletta)
May 2013 - https://www.facebook.com/events/606131596081590/
June 2013 - https://www.facebook.com/events/651531088195657/?fref=ts
November 2013 https://www.facebook.com/events/181806565344127/
March 2014 - https://www.facebook.com/events/801055669910690/?fref=ts
May 2014- https://www.facebook.com/events/638639176215185/638639179548518/?notif_t=like

Histoire
Conceived as a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, the Salon was an Italian invention of the 16th century which flourished in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The word salon itself, first appeared in France in 1664 (from the Italian word salone, derived from sala, the large reception hall of Italian mansions). Held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation, these intimate assemblies often consciously followed Horace’s definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" ("aut delectare aut prodesse est")

In 16th-century Italy, some scintillating circles formed in the smaller courts which resembled salons, often galvanized by the presence of a beautiful and educated patroness such as Isabella d’Este or Iasbella Gonzaga

The first renowned salon in France was the Hôtel de Rambouillet not far from the Palais du Louvre in Paris, which its hostess, Roman-born Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588–1665), ran from 1607 until her death. She established the rules of etiquette of the salon which resembled the earlier codes of Italian chivalry. The salon evolved into a well-regulated practice that focused on and reflected enlightened public opinion by encouraging the exchange of news and ideas. By the mid-eighteenth century the salon had become an institution in French society and functioned as a major channel of communication among intellectuals. The period in which salons and their English ‘coffee house’ counterpart were dominant has been labeled the 'age of conversation'. In contrast to the rigid social hierarchy of the court, the mixing of the sexes and the different social ranks and orders within the Salon; the idle aristocracy, the ambitious middle class, poets, writers, artists and philosophers, this all helped to cultivate a fertile arena for open philosophical debate and the free exchange of thought and opinion which made the Enlightenment possible. The Salon also provided intelligent self-educated women, excluded from the public sphere, with an intellectual outlet and a platform on which to contribute on a social, literary, or political level . In addition to deciding the subjects of their meetings,and who was admitted into their sanctotums, Salonierres could weird powerful influence as mediators directing the discussion and through their patronage of artists and thinkers. The salon was essentially an informal university for women in which women were able to reciprocate ideas, receive and give criticism, read their own works and hear the works and ideas of other intellectuals. Salons were held all over Europe and also in the harems of the Middle East. In 18th century England, salons were held by Elizabeth Montagu, in whose salon the expression blue stockings (les bas-bleus), originated and who created the Blue Stockings Society. The nickname became synonymous with the "intellectual woman" for the next three hundred years. Salons did not die out with the French Revolution. Right up until the 1950’s the Paris Salon of Marie-Laure de Noailles included illuminaries such as Jean Cocteau, Igor Markevitch and Salvador Dalie in her coterie, whilst in Iberia and Latin America the ‘Tertulia’, a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones continues to thrive. The tradition of the Salon is now undergoing something of a revival in the age of networking sites such as Linked In and Face Book, the virtual salon cannot usurp the personal touch, human contact, the urge to be seen, loved, applauded and acknowledged. For a more detailed history of the Salon google Wikipedia for links