LANGUAGE : Fr|En
Since 2007, Azulis Capital has supported Adie (a French association promoting micro-business initiatives), funding an award each year to the wining candidates in a business contest, CréAdie-Elan d'Idées.
Adie works in cooperation with social services to help those excluded from the labour market and the traditional banking system to create their own self-employment with micro-credit financing. Founded in 1989 by Maria Nowak, the association has financed over 100,000 business projects generating close to 100,000 jobs. Adie is currently chaired by Catherine Barbaroux.
The CréAdie – Elan d’Idées contest is designed to foster success stories among those founding their businesses with microcredit provided by Adie. A jury, comprising members of the Azulis Capital team, a micro-entrepreneur financed by Adie, together with representatives of Adie, selects the candidates according to two criteria: entrepreneurial endeavour and project originality.
In 2012, the public was once again asked to vote through social networks to select the winner of the Grand Prix du Jury. In this respect, the 2012 competition proved an unparalleled success on Facebook, with five times more participants than last year.
Four winners were honoured in 2012:
- · Marouane El Gharib, who created a business transporting persons with disabilities in Franche-Comté, received the Social Networks Prize, as well as the Prize for Economic Development.
- · Marie-Laure Secondat, opening a restaurant in Marseille, won the Grand Prix du Jury.
- · Brigitte Roussey, who launched a business manufacturing and selling baskets of organic food in the Paris region, won the Prize for Sustainable Development.
- · Clélia Bandia, the founder of a make-up business, won the Prize for Human Development.
Finally, the jury decided to award two ‘Favourites’ to:
- · Patrick Lin (flooring specialist in Saint Denis, Réunion).
- · Charles Maou (taxi driver in Ouvéa, New Caledonia).
Azulis Capital, sponsoring contemporary art
Alongside its role fostering small and middle market companies in France, Azulis Capital has been sponsoring contemporary artists for a number of years.
With the assistance of the art agency, l'Art en Direct, this year Azulis Capital has chosen the photographer Serge Ramelli. It will build a partnership with him to promote his work over 2012. Ramelli follows in the footsteps of photographer Philippe Fabian, and his Simultaneous Landscapes, who succeeded Jean-François Rauzier, the inventor of the Hyperphoto.
From February 7, 2012 to January 31, 2013, the artist's work will be on show at Azulis Capital's premises. This exhibition is intended to provide a meeting point where the universe of the artist comes together with that of the entrepreneurs supported by the Team at Azulis Capital.
Serge Ramelli and Paris Cinema
Fascinated by images since his earliest years, Serge Ramelli spent several years studying graphic design and trained with leading French and American photographers such as Moose Peterson, Vincent Versace, Joe McNally and Rick Sammon.
Ramelli has been much inspired by the artful and shifting illumination found in movies, which render the auditorium's decor so majestic and grandiose. For four years he has criss-crossed Paris, seeking out its distinctive ambiance and in particular studying how each setting is lit - in pursuit of one idea which he calls "Paris cinema".
Most of the photographs are taken in twilight, just before or after sundown, minutes after the street lighting comes on. Sometimes it takes several weeks to find just the "right" lighting.
Ramelli, whose "everyday" job is a movie producer, is engaged in a search for the best techniques in both photography and computer graphics to better promote the grandeur of urban landscapes in the spirit of the Seventh Art, cinema.