“From a very early age, I saw not only the stage, but everything hidden behind it: the discipline, the tension, the emotional devotion, the absolute dedication to one’s craft. And I think it was then that I first understood that true beauty always demands immense inner work”.
“The most valuable things in the world cannot be bought. They can only be felt”
On the new global luxury, cultural diplomacy, a new generation of private society, and the art of creating evenings that change a person’s inner state
In the world of luxury entertainment, almost everything revolves around scale: major names, extraordinary budgets, guest lists, and the endless flash of cameras on the red carpet. Yet there are rare individuals who operate on an entirely different level — not through spectacle, but through the feeling that remains with a person hours, days, sometimes even years after the evening has ended.
Maxim Berin is one of them.
An international producer and founder of Berin Iglesias Art Holding, he created Big Art Festival at precisely the moment when the world began searching for a new language of luxury: one that is no longer ostentatious or performative, but quiet, refined, and deeply emotional. A world in which art ceases to be a decoration of life and becomes its architecture.
Big Art Festival gala evenings take place at Rosewood Hong Kong during Art Basel, in the legendary settings of Courchevel and St. Moritz, along the coast of Portofino, in Monte Carlo, Dubai, New York, Porto Cervo, Forte dei Marmi, and many other destinations around the world.
Among its guests are people accustomed to the very best the world has to offer: owners of international family offices, figures from private banking circles, heirs to royal dynasties, founders of global companies, investors, patrons of the arts, leaders of luxury brands, and those for whom cultural capital has long become more important than demonstrative status. It is an audience that has seen almost everything and therefore senses authenticity, refinement, and true taste with extraordinary precision.
For many years, Maxim Berin has lived and worked in Monaco as a resident of the Principality, one of the world’s leading centers of luxury lifestyle, private capital, and international cultural diplomacy.
In Berin’s world, there are no accidental details. The lighting. The music. The scenography. The rhythm of the dinner service. The seating arrangement. Everything exists as part of one carefully composed emotional score.
“People don’t remember the programme of the evening. They remember how they felt inside that moment.”
And perhaps this is Maxim Berin’s greatest talent: transforming an event into an emotional architecture of memory.
Maxim, one has the impression that you are not working in the event business in the conventional sense, but rather creating entire cultural worlds with their own aesthetics, atmosphere, and philosophy.
That is probably the closest description of how I personally perceive my work.
For me, an event has never simply been a concert, a dinner, or a beautifully organised evening. It has always been something far deeper. From the very beginning, I was interested not in the external side of an event, but in the inner emotional state of the person inside that space.
What they feel in the first seconds as the doors open. How their mood shifts when the first notes begin to play. How lighting, music, the rhythm of the evening, and the energy of the people around them influence their emotions.
Why in one setting a person remains merely an observer, while in another they begin to truly feel.
Did your story begin with music?
Without question. And honestly, I believe music shaped not only my professional path, but my entire perception of the world.
My father is Maestro conductor Arkady Beryn, a man who devoted his entire life to music. I grew up surrounded by orchestras, rehearsals, tours, endless conversations about art, scores, sound, interpretation, meaning. In our home, music was never simply a profession. It was part of life itself.
From a very early age, I saw not only the stage, but everything hidden behind it: the discipline, the tension, the emotional devotion, the absolute dedication to one’s craft. And I think it was then that I first understood that true beauty always demands immense inner work.
My father taught me one very important thing: to listen not only to the sound itself, but to the pause between sounds.
As a child, I did not fully understand what he meant. Later, I realised that it is precisely the pauses that create depth.
In music. In conversation. In the architecture of an evening. In human relationships. I think the world today has become far too loud. Everyone is trying to speak faster, brighter, louder than everyone else. And against that background, the ability to feel a pause becomes almost a form of luxury.
Perhaps that is why my projects place so much emphasis on atmosphere, rhythm, and the emotional breathing of a space. I have never loved excess.
For me, true impact is born not from abundance, but from precision.
From that very delicate sense of measure that is almost impossible to explain in words yet impossible not to feel.
When did you realise you wanted to build an international cultural business?
Probably the moment I understood one very simple thing: in the future, the most valuable currency would not be objects, but emotions.
Today everyone speaks about the experience economy, but if we are honest, true luxury culture has always been built around exactly that. Never around possessions themselves.
Because any object is valuable only because of the feeling it creates.
And I think modern society is gradually arriving at this understanding. People no longer want simply to own things. Ownership itself no longer impresses anyone. Today everyone has seen everything.
That is why I have always viewed cultural business not as part of the entertainment industry, but as work with human emotions, memory, and inner experience.
Because art, music, atmosphere, beautiful spaces — at their very best — have the power to transform a person. Even if only for a single evening. And sometimes, one evening stays with you forever.
Today, Berin Iglesias Art is a fully developed international ecosystem: concerts, world tours, festivals, luxury entertainment, artist management, private events, cultural collaborations, strategic partnerships with global brands, hotels, institutions, and art platforms.
We work across different countries, different cultures, different audiences, and very different scales. Over the course of a year, we produce between two hundred and two hundred and fifty events worldwide -from intimate private evenings to major international festivals.
So this is how the Big Art Society was born?
At a certain point, I realised that people were no longer satisfied with simply attending beautiful events, even those at the highest level. The world had become oversaturated with experiences. Today, almost everyone has access to the best hotels, restaurants, concerts, and private clubs. Yet despite all of this, there remains a very deep sense of inner deficiency — a lack of true environment, meaningful intellectual exchange, and beautiful human energy.
And it was precisely from that feeling that the Big Art Society gradually emerged.
At first, it happened almost intuitively. Before and after Big Art Festival evenings, people simply did not want to leave. They would remain at the table late into the night, continuing conversations, meeting one another, starting new projects together, travelling together, returning to our events no longer merely as guests, but as part of a certain circle.
And I realised something very important: Today, true luxury is not access to an event. True luxury is access to the right environment.
Tell us about your plans for the summer. It sounds like the season ahead will be incredibly intense.
Yes, this summer will be extraordinarily beautiful and deeply emotional. And what I love most is that every project has a completely different mood, aesthetic, and energy. We never try to repeat ourselves. It is very important to me that each event has its own atmosphere and leaves behind its own unique aftertaste.
One of the brightest moments of the season will be the Big Art Festival in Samarkand with Craig David. And honestly, this is one of those rare projects where everything aligns perfectly: the history of the place, the energy of the city, the music, the summer air, the architecture, the people.
Samarkand is experiencing a remarkable cultural renaissance today. It is a city with extraordinary historical depth that is once again becoming a point of international attraction. And hosting a major summer open-air event there with Craig David feels incredibly symbolic and beautiful.
Then comes New York and that is an entirely different energy altogether. For the second consecutive year, we are producing a major event during FIFA Week. At that time, New York became an almost surreal concentration of international business, sport, entertainment, and media. And this year, we will have 50 Cent performing.
I genuinely love when projects differ so radically from one another. It prevents the industry from becoming a conveyor belt.
After that comes Monaco with Mumiy Troll, which is also a very special story. Monaco in the summer possesses its own unique magic. There is this extraordinary combination of Mediterranean lightness, old-money elegance, and a feeling of beautiful European freedom.
And Mumiy Troll fits perfectly into that atmosphere. Their music has always carried something intelligent, romantic, atmospheric – slightly nostalgic, yet completely timeless at the same time.
But perhaps one of the most ambitious and emotionally powerful projects of the summer will be Porto Cervo with Robbie Williams.
And that, I think, will be a true wow moment. Porto Cervo is a very special place. To me, it is the pure essence of Mediterranean luxury beautiful, relaxed, effortless, yet at the same time incredibly elevated. During the summer, the international elite gathers there from all over the world.
And Robbie Williams exists inside that energy perfectly.
Because Robbie is not simply an artist. He is an enormous emotional force. He has an extraordinary connection with the audience. He can be both a global superstar and, at the same time, deeply human, ironic, charismatic, and completely authentic.
And I think authenticity is something people value more than ever today.
We are preparing a very cinematic concept for the evening. It will not simply be a concert, but a large-scale Mediterranean experience: the atmosphere of the Italian summer, extraordinary scenography, exceptional gastronomy, sunset over the sea, open-air music, beautiful people, incredible energy.
But most importantly, it will create a feeling people are desperately missing in everyday life — freedom, lightness, happiness.
Honestly, I believe the Big Art Festival in Porto Cervo will become one of the most talked-about private music events of the European summer.
And projects like these remind me why I still love what I do after so many years.
Because in the best moments, you realise that you are not simply creating an event. You are creating a memory.
