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Marseille- 

Provence 2013 

European and 

Mediterranean 

Application to become 

the European Capital of Culture 

Under the tutelage of 

Albert Camus, who would have 

been 100 years old in 2013

“Even today, we can still find a clear-eyed understanding 

in France and a consideration with regard to those rare 

and rarely satisfied men who are too great to be fulfilled 

by any form of patriotism and who, as Northerners, 

know how to love the South and in the South, love 

the North – those natural Mediterraneans, those good 

Europeans”. 

Friedrich Nietzsche 

3

Max Ernst, Jacqueline Lamba, André Masson, André Breton and Varian Fry – Courtesy of the Varian Fry Institute 

Once before in its history, Marseilles was a European 

Capital of Culture. 

A city of refuge and a city of migrants, Marseilles took 

in the best that Europe had to offer in the world 

of art and thought between 1940 and 1942, sheltering 

those that were persecuted by barbarians at that time. 

It is while reflecting on these moments of trial and hope, 

and on those who gathered around the exemplary 

figure of Varian Fry, that we undertake to relate our work. 

4 5

Prologue 

Prologue 

6 

Prologue 

From the very beginning, the Marseille-Provence 2013 bid project has been founded on a 

dual analysis of the role of culture in the construction of Europe and of the place of the arts 

in the regeneration of the city. This dual analysis has led us to four observations that can 

be confirmed on both the European and local levels. 

A political observation 

The rejection of the European Constitution project is indicative of a consciousness and a moti- 

vation that is not fully shared by the general public. The results of the constitutional referendum 

across the area implicated in the bid were even less convincing than those of the French national 

average and may have conferred a reputation of “bad Europeans” on the people of Marseilles. 

An economic observation 

Two recent developments make it more necessary than ever for culture and the economy 

to come together. 

The weight of cultural activities keeps growing in terms of jobs and productive activity. 

The economies of knowledge, innovation and creation are becoming key factors of deve- 

lopment. The cultural element is a priority for Europe in the context of the Lisbon Treaty 

and Marseilles-Provence has also made it a pillar of its Territorial Development Plan (Schéma 

de Cohérence Territorial) for the 2006-2016 period. The main figures in the local economy 

have united as the “Ambition Top 20” club following the Lisbon Treaty, with the aim of 

propelling Marseilles into the list of Europe’s top 20 cities. Convinced of the role of culture 

in the influence and appeal of the area, they initiated a range of key measures as early as 

2007 in support of our application for the title of European Capital of Culture. 

7

Prologue 

A demographic observation 

Europe has long been the world’s most important territory in terms of immigration. 

The challenges presented by immigration and by the dialogue between cultures are becoming 

increasingly important, given the dangerous growth of problems linked to community identity 

and the aggravation of disparities between the European Union and many of its neighbouring 

countries. In this respect, Marseilles-Provence, a region that has always welcomed immigrants 

and a city built on diversity, represents a unique European testing ground for integration and 

intercultural exchange. 

An international observation 

Over recent years, culture has become an essential component in Europe’s international 

relations, as shown clearly in the recent UNESCO Convention on cultural diversity and 

by the European Union’s own negotiating positions within the World Trade Organisation. 

In the same way, Marseilles-Provence has seized the opportunity presented by our bid to 

make an unprecedented effort in terms of international outreach and cooperation through 

culture. This effort is described in Chapter 1 of our first report. 

Combining these dual international and local aspects of the cultural element of develop- 

ment, we have put together a project that is driven by five aspirations: 

1. The aspiration of playing a significant role in the cultural geopolitics of Europe with 

an emphasis on those EU strategies and programmes to which Marseilles-Provence can 

make the most effective contribution. Consequently, in this second stage, we have sought 

to conform to the new cultural agenda of Europe as defined for the 2007-2013 period. 

8 

Prologue 

This choice has led us to define a bid concept that runs through and unites the different 

themes and programmes of the project, giving it strength and originality. It is a concept 

that ensures that our project will last long after 2013 and that brings together both 

opinion leaders and the general public in its implementation: the “Ateliers de l’Euro- 

méditerranée” (Euro-Mediterranean Workshops). Putting this concept into action on 

the ground will be both an unprecedented experience and an example for Europe. 

2. The aspiration of building a programme based on themes that meet the challenges of 

our commitment to Europe’s cultural engagement and which are designed to develop ex- 

periences, discussions and exchanges of knowledge and skills around these themes. 

3. The aspiration of mobilising the greatest possible number of local and European figures 

in the fields of art, science and business around these experiences and to offer all citizens 

the possibility of playing a part in them. 

4. The aspiration of producing work and events which support contemporary creation in 

Europe, which promote both the diversity and the shared character of this creation, and 

which will endow our city with a new kind of heritage. This is why we are making an excep- 

tional effort to promote the public and private commissioning of various pieces of work. 

5. The aspiration of permanently transforming the city, of building a real territory project 

and of preparing immediately for the “after 2013” period. 

The work accomplished during the initial selection phase has allowed us to develop the 

direction and overall content of the bid in association with the leading figures of Marseilles- 

9

Prologue 

Provence: we chose our objectives, selected themes, designed the programmes, assessed 

the resources required, appointed the Board and undertook negotiations for local, national 

and international partnerships. All of this has helped us to define “What Marseilles- 

Provence wants to do in order to move forward.” 

Since then, we have been working to prepare the final project: 

– The evaluation process described in Chapter 8 of the first report is under way. Critical 

10 

analyses of the pre-selection file have been sought from different outside experts in France 

and abroad. 

– We have carried out missions in 9 European Capitals of Culture, whose events are either 

finished, in progress, or in preparation. 

– Trips and meetings have been organised with the partners of Marseilles-Provence across 

Europe, especially in Slovakia and in 7 countries of the Southern and Eastern 

Mediterranean. 

– The activities of the Marseille-Provence 2013 Association have been developed to unite 

the elected officials of the area and representative figures from the worlds of business, 

culture, education and science. The Association’s Board has met every two months since 

the beginning of 2007. 

– We have embarked on some of the bid’s structural programmes without waiting for the final 

selection result, and a number of events have already been organised with success. This is 

notably the case for the launch of the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” (Euro-Mediterranean 

Workshops) and the “Nouveaux Commanditaires” (New Commissioners) programme. 

– The Association has allocated 1 million specifically to these activities in its 2008 budget, 

excluding operating costs and in addition to funds raised by various project leaders and 

partners of the programmes concerned. 

Prologue 

– The public promotion and advertising plan drawn up in the first phase of bid (see Chap. 6 

of report 1) has also been put into action. 

– The development work of structural projects has been pursued, in particular by setting up 

scientific and artistic councils on various themes, by appointing of curators (for exhibitions) 

and project managers, who took up their posts in January 2008, by drawing up European 

and Mediterranean partnership agreements and by fixing the relevant budgets. 

– An overall project schedule has been established. 

Informed by this work, we will be seeking to reply to the following 6 questions in this second 

volume of the bid file: 

Chapter 1: How has the project been specified and structured since the pre-selection 

phase? 

Chapter 2: How does the project serve a Europe of Culture? 

Chapter 3: What lasting changes will the project bring about for Marseille-Provence? 

How is it preparing for the post-2013 period? 

Chapter 4: How is the project mobilising citizens? How are citizens participating in the 

development of the project? 

Chapter 5: How is the project’s implementation being prepared? 

Conclusion: How would its selection as ‘Capital’ help Marseille-Provence become a true 

European cultural metropolis? 

In the appendices, we provide a more detailed description of the state of progress on a 

theme-by-theme basis for all of the programmes currently being developed. 

11

Contents 

6 Prologue 

14 Chapter 1: How has the 

project been specified 

and structured since 

the pre-selection phase? 

16 1.1 Work on the main concept of the project: 

the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

(Euro-Mediterranean Workshops) 

20 1.2 Work on the priority themes of the project 

26 1.3 Work on the high points and framework 

programmes of the project 

27 1.3.A Two new permanent European festivals: 

InterMed (and its InterMed Youth section) 

and Via Marseilles 

30 1.3.B Existing international events will 

develop Euro-Mediterranean programmes 

from 2009 to 2013 

35 1.3.C The exhibitions of 2013 

41 1.3.D The major popular events of 2013 

47 1.3.E Other framework programmes 

of the bid from 2009 to 2013 

62 1.4 Work on the 2013 calendar 

76 Chapter 2: How does 

the project serve a Europe 

of Culture? 

78 2.1 The project is in line with European 

and Mediterranean Union policy 

80 2.1.A The project endorses the 1995 

Barcelona Process 

81 2.1.B The project is in line with the priorities 

of the EU’s “Culture Programme 2007-2013” 

81 2.1.C The Project endorses certain specific 

European programmes and has attracted 

the necessary funding 

84 2.2 The project mobilises stakeholders 

and citizens around issues and partnerships 

in Europe and the Mediterranean 

86 2.3 The project develops Euro- 

Mediterranean partnerships and integrates 

existing exchange networks 

87 2.3.A With Slovakia 

89 2.3.B With European and Mediterranean 

networks 

92 2.3.C With the cities of Europe 

93 2.3.D With cities and stakeholders 

on the Southern and Eastern shores 

of the Mediterranean 

96 2.4 The high points, framework programmes 

and certain new facilities have a European 

and Mediterranean vocation and represent 

major long-term investments 

98 2.5 The European agenda of Marseilles- 

Provence in 2008 

99 2.5.A General Agenda 

100 2.5.B European cultural projects initiated 

or supported by the bid as preview events of 

the European Capital of Culture in 2008 

101 2.5.C Cultural projects initiated or supported by 

the bid in 2008 as part of the European cultural 

season during the French Presidency of the EU 

102 Chapter 3: What lasting 

changes will the project bring 

about for Marseille-Provence? 

How is it preparing for the 

post-2013 period? 

104 3.1 The project is part of an overall 

development and redevelopment 

strategy for Marseilles-Provence 

106 3.1.A The Cité de la Méditerranée 

112 3.1.B A cultural Cloister in Aix-en-Provence 

113 3.1.C The Regeneration of Industrial Wasteland 

115 3.1.D Places of Memory 

116 3.2 The bid is a regional cultural project 

118 3.3 The project creates lasting pieces of work 

122 3.4 The project is building sustainable 

cultural activities 

134 Chapter 4: How is the project 

mobilising citizens? How are 

citizens participating in the 

development of the project? 

136 4.1 Implementing the strategy 

for mobilising citizens 

138 4.2 Working with associations 

140 4.2.A Participative projects undertaken 

by associations 

144 4.3 Working with businesses 

and laboratories 

145 4.3.A The “Ateliers de l’Euro- 

méditerranée” (Euro-Mediterranean 

Workshops) in businesses 

147 4.3.B The “Ateliers de l’Euro- 

méditerranée” project in laboratories 

148 4.4 Working with schools 

149 4.4.A Participative projects involving schools 

152 4.5 Informing and rallying residents in 2008 

153 4.5.A Publicise the stakes, increase visibility, 

increase the bid’s relays of information 

156 4.5.B Popular events to rally residents from the 

territory implicated in the bid 

158 4.6 Citizen participation after 2008 

168 Chapter 5: How is the 

project’s implementation 

being prepared? 

172 5.1 Future governance of the project 

173 5.1.A Legal review 

175 5.1.B The selected mode of governance 

176 5.1.C The Marseilles-Provence area 

177 5.1.D The Charter of the Association 

178 5.2 Organisation 

179 5.2.A The Administrative Board 

180 5.2.B The Steering Committee 

180 5.2.C The Operations Team 

181 5.2.D The Evaluation 

and Supervisory Committee 

182 5.3 The budget 

188 5.4 Evaluation and management- 

monitoring tools 

190 5.5 Strategy concerning citizen mobilisation, 

promotion, communications and tourism 

development from 2009 to 2013 

191 5.5.A Belief confirmed 

192 5.5.B The strategy’s key points 

194 5.5.C A tourism development policy linked to 

communications 

196 Chapter 6: How would its 

selection as ‘Capital’ help 

Marseille-Provence become 

a true European cultural 

metropolis? 

200 6.1 Handicaps and weaknesses 

202 6.2 Weaknesses with promising potential 

206 6.3 How the European Capital of Culture will 

help correct Marseilles’ weaknesses

16 

20 

26 

62 

1.1 

1.2 

1.3 

1.4 

Work on the main concept 

of the project: the “Ateliers 

de l’Euroméditerranée” 


Work on the priority themes 

of the project 

Work on the high points 

and framework programmes 


Work on the 2013 calendar 

Chapter 1 

How has the project 

been specified and 

structured since the 

pre-selection phase?

Chapter 1 

How has the project been 

specified and structured since 


1.1 

Work on the main 

concept of the project: 

the “Ateliers 


(Euro-Mediterranean 

Workshops) 

Chapter 1 How has the project been specified 

and structured since the pre-selection phase? 

The choice of concept presented during the pre- 

selection process has been confirmed. 

Its title has been modified: to the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

instead of the “Ateliers de la Méditerranée” 

in order to emphasise and affirm the North- 

South dimension of the exchanges and meetings 

between creators, their projects and their work. 

The strength of the concept lies in the combination 

of: 

– the historical Euro-Mediterranean vocation of 

Marseilles; 

– our desire to make a durable contribution to the 

implementation of the recently updated 1995 

Barcelona Process and to the priorities of the 

European Union’s “Culture 2007-2013” programme: 

intercultural dialogue, aid for artistic 

creation, and transnational circulation of cultural 

and artistic output. 

The originality of the concept lies in the gradual and 

sustainable creation of 200 to 250 workshops within 

community associations, businesses, laboratories, 

schools and the cultural institutions in the Marseilles- 

Provence area. Some participative projects (see 

chap. 4) of a sufficiently high professional level could 

also be integrated in the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée”, 

and be the subject of a public presentation in 

the framework of the InterMed festival (see p. 27). 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” concept guarantees 

that the productions engaged in 2008 will 

endure beyond 2013. The concept brings together a 

large number of the area’s cultural, educational, 

scientific and business figures and, through them, a 

large population of students, researchers, and 

employees. 

The realisation of this concept will constitute an 

unparalleled experiment in Europe, capable of 

inspiring other comparable initiatives. 

Its general vocation and its five aims have been 

maintained: 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” concept covers 

all the events that aim to make Marseilles-Provence 

a European hub of cultural cooperation, involving 

major figures from European and Mediterranean 

countries in all disciplines of the arts and culture. This 

hub will be built to last. 

Its missions and activities will continue beyond 2013. 

It will give priority to actions towards young creators 

and researchers. It will be constructed by federating 

the existing or future institutions and events of 

Marseilles-Provence in the perspective of 2013. Its 

spearhead will be the high points of the InterMed 

festival and its InterMed Youth section. 

Hosting 

Artists, scholars and creators of cities and landscapes 

from the South and North will be invited to Marseilles- 

Provence each year and throughout the year, to work, 

communicate and discuss. Facilities for their accommodation 

and work will be arranged within the cultural 

institutions and businesses in the area. In this regard, 

the business world in particular has mobilised its resources 

to propose an exemplary programme that is 

being put into operation as of 2008 (see p. 4). 

With the help of their employees, businesses are 

proposing locations for artists’ residencies and are 

making room for the requisite work and rehearsal 

studios on their premises. 

Certain institutions are ideal for installing special 

centres. For example, the former SNCF workshops in 

Arles; the European Académie of Musique in the 

context of the Aix-en-Provence International Opera 

Festival and the Grand Saint Jean project; the Centre 

National de Création et de Diffusion Culturelles in 

Châteauvallon (in the Toulon urban district); in 

Marseilles, The La Friche La Belle de Mai Arts Centre, 

the Street Arts Academy, the Docks des Suds, the 

International Documentary Festival (with its FIDLab 

for producer/director pairings based on the successful 

Rotterdam model), the IMéRA (Institut Méditerranéen 

de Recherches Avancées – Mediterranean Institute 

for Advanced Research) will welcome academics. 

In 2009, research laboratories and competitiveness 

clusters will join the movement with the aim of mitigating 

the relative isolation of scientific culture. 

16 17



Transmitting 

The Marseilles-Provence project is a project for the young. 

Transmission may not be the most spectacular aspect 

of the project, or the most popular; it is however 

considered to be central by leading cultural figures. 

Marseilles cannot pretend in the long term to be a 

metropolis of Euro-Mediterranean culture without 

offering a powerful response to the challenge of 

transmission and young people. 

They are the future. The progress of thought, the 

renewal of forms, the exploration of new arenas of 

expression all come about by the questioning and 

testing of sources, knowledge and skills. 

We will invite masters from the South and from the 

North in all disciplines (the arts of the written word and 

public discourse, the arts of music, the arts of the fixed 

and animated images, the art of garden design, of landscaping, 

of architecture, the arts of fashion and food), 

without forgetting the fields of knowledge and crafts and 

scientific culture in general. We will invite young creators 

to meet with these masters, to work in contact with 

them in master classes and courses. We will thus develop 

exchanges among the Southern countries themselves 

as much as between the South and the North. 

Specific projects, which will be introduced between 

now and 2013, will allow us to develop and consolidate 

this ambition. This is the case, for example, of the 

Centre Européen de la Photographie (European 

Photography Centre) which is to be located in Arles 

and which will provide continuous training for young 

photographers. 

18 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

to emphasise and affirm the North- 

South dimension of the exchanges 

and meetings between creators, 

their projects and their work. 

Articulating transmission and creation 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” will be associated 

with courses and encounters to provide support for the 

creative projects that will be produced and presented 

alongside the events – exhibitions, shows, festivals – in 

the years to come. A specific policy of commissions 

will be implemented. Special attention will be given 

to new artistic writing, to music, to popular urban 

forms of expression and to creative documentaries. 

Contributing to the renewal of the city 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” will be open to 

the city. They will deal with such issues as the redevelopment 

of public spaces and the place of art in 

these spaces. They will associate artists, architects and 

planners. They will look at nomadism, the circulation 

of works of art and the cultural irrigation of the area. 

They will organise public meetings. Residents will 

participate in cultural projects designed to develop 

amateur activities, especially in schools. 

Contemporary creation – and especially young creation 

– fosters openness and social links. Artistic activities 

in the South as in the North are today increasingly 

linked to local areas and issues, and combine artistic, 

educational and social dimensions. In this new relationship 

with people and audiences, young creators 

can structure and animate vital spaces of freedom. 

Combining artistic works with intellectual and 

scientific works 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” will support 

exchanges and debates between masters and students, 

academics and artists, in liaison with universities and 

research institutes, around some of the main themes 

of the European Capital of Culture project. Seminars 

and conferences will be organised on these themes, 

notably: 

– Publishing in the Mediterranean Forum; 

– Television around the Mediterranean Forum; 

– Meetings between art schools and theatre schools 

in Europe and the Mediterranean; 

– The Anna Lindh Foundation’s Forum for Young 

Creators; 

– Forum of European and Mediterranean cultural 

networks; 

– International Conference on the Mediterranean 

Architectural Heritage (R.I.P.A.M.); 

– European seminars on educational and cultural 

multimedia; 

– “Sciences Frictions” Conference. 

In 2008, the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” were launched (see 

Chap. 4 and 5 below): 

10 volunteer businesses have been selected to create work and production 

facilities in their premises in order to welcome an initial group of artists; 

cultural institutions and events in the area implicated in the bid have been 

mobilised and have begun to coordinate programmes of residencies, 

commissions and master classes; 

European and Mediterranean artists have been associated with building 

the concept of the “Ateliers” and will assist in putting them into action 

over the coming years: 

Gloria Friedmann Visual artist Federal Republic of Germany, Gabriele Basilico 

Photographer Italy, Assia Djebar Writer and film-maker Algeria, 

Dominique Edde Writer Lebanon, École P.A.R.T.S. Choreographers 

Belgium, Yousry Nasrallah Film-maker Egypt, Franck II Louise Choreog- 

rapher & musician France, Jani Nuutinen/Circo Aero Circus artists 

Finland, Armand Arnal Chef France, Zad Multaka Musician Lebanon, 

Ahmed Essyad Composer France. 

19

Chapter 1 




1.2 

Work on 

the priority themes 




In order to improve the coherency and the clarity of 

the project and in order to reinforce its links with the 

aims of the EU’s cultural policies, especially as they 

are set out in: 

– the 3rd element of the Barcelona Process; 

– the Commission’s cultural programme for 2007-2013; 

– the Communication of May 2007 on a “European 

agenda for culture in a globalizing world”; 

– in order to enhance the territorial dimension; 

– in order to take the fullest possible advantage of the 

special local and international features of Marseilles- 

Provence; 

– the number of themes has been reduced, priorities 

have been affirmed more clearly, their content 

specified and, in certain cases, modified in relation 

to the first report. 

Emphases have thus been placed and work focussed 

on the following areas: 

– Marseilles-Provence, a city of intercultural dialogue 

and transmission; 

– Marseilles-Provence, an area that expresses Europe’s 

shared values and diverse beliefs; 

– Marseilles-Provence, a public arena undergoing regeneration 

thanks to the creativity of artists, scholars 

and architects from Europe and the Mediterranean; 

– Marseilles-Provence, a testing ground for cultural 

democracy and citizen participation. 

The number of themes has been 

reduced, priorities have been affirmed 

more clearly, their content specified 

and, in certain cases, modified in 

relation to the first report. 

Reminder: 

On the basis of the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

concept, the project is constructed around two main 

strategies: 

– an international strategy entitled “Le Partage des 

Midis” (Sharing the South) that corresponds to goal 

nº1 (“to enrich the cultural element of the Barcelona 

Process by creating a permanent hub for intercultural, 

Euro-Mediterranean dialogue in Marseilles”), 

– a local strategy designated “La Cité Radieuse” (The 

Radiant City) that corresponds to goal nº2 (“to 

develop artistic and cultural activity as a force for 

the renewal of the city by conjugating four issues: 

the quality of public space, cultural irrigation of the 

area, the appeal of the metropolis and widespread 

public participation”). 

Each of these two strategies comprises four themes 

that, in the first case, express the cultural dimension 

of the issues surrounding Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, 

and, in the second case, examine the 

cultural aspects of urban regeneration. 

The four themes of Strategy 1, “Le Partage des Midis” are: 

– Migrations and Memories 

– Values and Beliefs 

– Genders or Genres 

– The Sharing of Water 

The four themes of Strategy 2, “La Cité Radieuse” are: 

– Art in the Public Arena 

– Walkers – Nomads – Territories 

– One Thousand and One Nights 

– Everyone is Involved 

This structure guarantees the coherency of the project 

and gives direction to its content.The two new international 

festivals proposed, the popular events, the 

exhibitions, the artistic commissions, the involvement 

of stakeholders and citizens, the cultural facilities 

under construction for 2013 and indeed the entire 

project is designed and programmed in accordance 

with the goals, the concept, the two strategies and 

the eight themes shown in the diagram opposite: 

20 21



The table displaying the structure of the project 

included in the pre-selection report has been modified 

and is now presented as follows: 

THE GOALS TO BE ATTAINED 

THE CONCEPT 

THE PROJECT 

22 

Goal No. 1 

To enrich the cultural element of the Barcelona Process 

by creating a permanent hub for intercultural, Euro- 

Mediterranean dialogue in Marseilles. 

Strategy 1 

European dimension 

A cultural project 

for a Euro-Mediterranean project 

Testing ground for cultural dialogue 

“Le Partage des Midis” 

(Sharing the South) 

Themes : 

1. Migrations and Memories 

2. Values and Beliefs 

3. Genders or Genres 

4. The Sharing of Water 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 


Hosting 

Sharing 

& transmitting 

Experimenting 

& creating 

Renewing 

Participating 

Programmes 

2009-2010-2011-2012-2013 

Goal No. 2 

To develop artistic and cultural activity as a force for 

renewal in the city by conjugating four issues: quality of 

public space, cultural irrigation of the area, widespread 

citizen participation and the appeal of the metropolis. 

Strategy 2 

Local dimension 

A cultural project 

for an urban project 

Testing ground for urban 

renewal through culture 

“La Cité Radieuse” 

(The Radiant City) 

Themes : 

1. Art in the Public Arena 

2. Walkers – Nomads – Territories 

3. One Thousand and One Nights 

4. Everyone is Involved 



Scientific and Artistic Advisors 

THEMES STRATEGY 1, Le Partage des Midis THEMES STRATEGY 2, La Cité Radieuse 

1 Migrations 

and Memories 

2 Values and 

Beliefs 

3 Genders 

or Genres 

4 The Sharing 

of Water 

Management of the MuCEM (Museum of European 

and Mediterranean Civilisations) 

Management of the Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration 

(National Centre for History and Immigration) 

Patrice Pomey, Historian 

Marilyne Crivello, Historian 

Jocelyne Dakhlia, Ethnologist 

Jean-Jacques Jordi, Director of the Memorial d’Outre-Mer 

(Overseas Memorial) project 

Michèle Beaussant, Ethnologist and Sociologist 

Dioniggi Albera, Ethnologist 

Thierry Fabre, Essayist 

Alain de Libera, Philosopher 

Benjamin Stora, Historian 

Pierre-Alain Rey, Professor of literature 

Catherine Camus 

Nadine Descendre, Programmer 

Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, Historian 

Arlette Farge, Historian 

Catherine David, Curator 

Rasha Salti, Sociologist 

Michel Peraldi, Anthropologist 

Pierre Chevalier, Cinema/radio/television producer 

Pierre-Alain Roche, Académie de l’Eau 

Loïc Fauchon, World Water Council (WWC) 

Jean-François Donzier, International Water Bureau 

Jacques Plantey, Société du Canal de Provence 

Raymond Jost, International Water Secretariat 

Pierre Chevallier, Institute of Research for Development 

Jean-Marc Providence, Curator of Exhibitions 

1 Art in the 

Public Arena 

2 Walkers – 

Nomads – 

Territories 

3 One 

Thousand 

and One Nights 

4 Everyone 

is Involved 

Laurent Le Bon, Curator of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Art 

Historian 

Patrick Bouchain, Architect 

Patrick Degroote, Director of the Festival of Anvers 

Nevenka Koprivsek, Director of the Festival of Lubjana 

Ali Hajji, Director of the Festival of Casablanca 

Jean-Pierre Blanc, Director of the Villa Noailles 

Michel Jean, Société du Canal de Provence 

Philippe Deliau, Landscape Artist 

Félix Lefebvre, Engineer 

Bruno Schnebelin, Artist/Director of the Compagnie Ilotopie 

Christophe Berthonneau, Artist/Director of Groupe F 

Pierre Sauvageot, Director of Lieux Publics 

Serge Hureau, Director of the Hall de la Chanson 

Bernard Aubert, Director of the Fiesta des Suds 

Chantal Ohanessian, Director of the Délégation aux enseignements 

artistiques et pratiques culturelles (Delegation to Arts 

Teaching and Cultural Activity) 

Georges Sylvestre, Directeur Régional de la Jeunesse et des 

Sports (Regional Director for Young People and Sport) 

Eric Michel, Director of the Cité de la Musique de Marseilles 

François Hers, Director of the Hartung Foundation 

Constance Hammond, Institut National de la Santé et de la 

Recherche Médicale (National Institute of Health and Medical 

Research) 

Sylvie Amar, Directrice du Bureau des Compétences et Désirs 

(Director of the Office of Skills and Aspirations) 

Michel Deneux, Délégué Départemental de l’Union des Centres 

Sociaux et Culturels des Bouches du Rhône (Departmental 

Delegate for the Union of Social and Cultural Centres of the 

Bouches du Rhône) 

23

“Le Partage des Midis” (Sharing the South) as interpreted by Stephan Muntaner – Image c-ktre 

“La Cité Radieuse” (The Radiant City) as interpreted by Stephan Muntaner – Image c-ktre 

24 25

Chapter 1 




1.3 

Work on the high 

points and framework 

programmes 




stage: Internum, Virtual Library of the Mediterranean. 

This library, directed by the Centre de Conservation 

du Livre in Arles is already well advanced. As early 

as 2010 it will be providing free access to 1,500,000 

images and texts. Our principal partners are the Library 

of Alexandria, the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Algerian 

libraries and the library of East Jerusalem. 

The second section will be, above all, designed as a 

Web TV site and will in particular allow viewers to 

tune in to live work sessions. It will be directed by 

Radio Grenouille in Marseilles. 

InterMed Live 

This is the visible part of the Workshops. It will be 

organised as a festival and will comprise three sections: 

InterMed Youth, InterMed Audiovisual and Inter- 

Med Master Class. 

InterMed Master Class. This high point will allow 

the general public to attend a certain number of events, 

which will range from the “Atelier rendering” to the 

finished production. InterMed Master Class will thus 

be not only the occasion to invite certain grand masters 

to hold workshops in Marseilles, but also to take advantage 

of their attendance to present one of their 

emblematic productions. 

InterMed Audiovisual will be directed by Les Instants 

Vidéos (the Friche La Belle de Mai Arts Centre) for 

the workshops and by the CMCA (Centre Méditerranéen 

de la Communication Audiovisuelle – Medi- 

26 27 

1.3.A 

Two new 

permanent 

European 

festivals: InterMed 

(and its InterMed 

Youth section) 

and Via Marseilles 

Since the pre-selection phase, the project of creating 

two enduring and unique new international festivals 

has been specified with the help of cultural figures 

from the area and outside arts consultants (see above 

1.1 and 1.2). The state of progress of this collective 

work is detailed in the Appendix. 

Strategy 1 

Programme 1 

InterMed 

An international platform for the 

“Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” will allow artists 

to meet up, exchange ideas and, ultimately, develop 

projects together. By 2013, a large part of these dayto-day 

exchanges will be taking place via a powerful 

Internet gateway. Each year, during the autumn halfterm 

school holidays, a high point will bring these 

figures together physically; the event will comprise 

several complementary sections to showcase the work 

of the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée.” 

InterMed Gateway 

The power of information technology tools now allows 

sound, image and film files to be exchanged in real 

time. The constitution of an InterMed Gateway site 

comprises a professional aspect and a public aspect. 

The professional site will comprise two sections; one 

will be a tool providing information on projects in 

progress and the production of the workshops; the 

other will be linked to InterMed Youth and will be 

used for exchanges around teaching resources and 

materials, especially in collaboration with the ORME 

(Observatoire des Ressources Multimédia en Education). 

The site will be mediated by ZINC/ECM (Marseilles) 

and Second Nature (Aix-en-Provence). 

The element for the general public will also be organised 

around two sections, one of which is already in the design



terranean Centre of Audiovisual Communication) 

for productions. Les Instants Vidéos, who celebrated 

the 20th anniversary of their festival in 2007, have 

been especially active for several years on projects 

with a Euro-Mediterranean theme. 

InterMed Youth. With a focus on transmission and 

intercultural dialogue, a particularly important place, 

both quantitatively and qualitatively, will be accorded 

to InterMed Youth, which will be designed for and 

by young people. 

The event will be built around a series of practical arts 

workshops intended for a target audience aged between 

3 and 15, as well as a series of shows for families. 

It will take place over three weeks, from the autumn 

school holidays through to the following week. This 

being an international event, it will be a real goal to 

interest the widest possible public. The workshops 

during the holiday period will be designed to take 

place throughout the day. 

The workshops will be held in specially equipped 

spaces with a main centre to be created at the Friche 

La Belle de Mai Arts Centre in Marseilles. Other 

locations throughout the area, especially in Arles, 

Aix-en-Provence, Gardanne, Martigues, Istres, Aubagne 

and Salon-de-Provence will allow us to reach out 

to “the children of cities” and “the children of the 

countryside” by intentionally changing their sociocultural 

environments. 

28 

With a focus on transmission and 

intercultural dialogue, a particularly 

important place, both quantitatively 

and qualitatively, will be accorded 

to InterMed Youth, which will 

be designed for and by young people. 

From 2010, the festival will extend invitations to 

other European Capitals of Culture and a city from 

the Mediterranean Basin. In 2010, Istanbul will join 

with Essen/Ruhr (Germany) and Pécs (Hungary) for 

an exceptional preview event. 

In addition, the Conseil Général will include the 

artists and the themes (especially the invited Capital 

cities) of the InterMed Youth project in its Culture/ 

Education programme proposed to 136 lower-secondary 

schools in the Bouches-du-Rhône Département. 

This collaboration, which will be put into action in 

2009-2010, will be used both to extend the work 

carried out during school time by the InterMed Youth 

workshops and to cover the entire area of the bid by 

organising workshops and special events in educational 

institutions during the festival. 

Implementation 

The festival will be coordinated by an international 

team whose professionalism is incontestable. At this 

time, work has already begun with: 

FEZ in Berlin and especially the Kindermuseum, P14 

(the youth group of the Berlin Volksbühne), Contacting 

the World (Manchester), UKM-Young Culture 

Meets (Sweden), the Festival della Scienza (Genova), 

the European Modern Music Education Network 

(Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Belgium) and 

Kopergietery (Ghent). 

2009 will be devoted to identifying artists, scientists 

and projects developed in the three invited cities. 

Exchanges with children from these cities will be 

organised by educational authorities. In 2010, 2011 

and 2012 we will call upon an increasingly wide range 

of educators so that InterMed will be able to acquire 

its true international dimension in preparation for its 

first edition in 2013. 



Strategy 1 | Theme 1 

Programme 36 

Via Marseilles 

European encounters 

between art and the city 

Marseilles-Provence is home to major European figures 

accustomed to working in the public arena (artists 

and institutions). The Capital year will allow them 

to develop an exceptional long-term project based 

on the diversity of the sites and on our institutional 

and cultural partners. 

As a Europe-wide event designed to renew forms of 

intervention in the public arena, Via Marseilles will 

be an occasion of large popular gatherings, cultural 

events and discussions involving the men and women 

who design and build European cities. One question 

will predominate: how does art transform the public 

arena, how does the public arena transform art? 

As an extraordinary tool for widening our vision, the 

European dimension will be at the heart of the arts 

events. Approximately ten renowned European 

cultural operators will be present at different locations 

throughout the area with artists from their own 

countries. This solid European presence will serve as 

a basis for discussions, forums, publications and 

exhibitions. 

Cooperation with major cultural operators and academics 

in the area will encourage experimentation 

in all artistic and cultural disciplines (theatre, music, 

dance, visual arts, photography, cinema, architecture, 

environment, etc.) in terms of their relationship with 

public spaces and their contact with other audiences. 

The diversity of the urban and rural sites across the 

area also opens up exceptional possibilities of 

creativity. 

Major thematic strategies 

The art of transforming the city: Artists have a major 

role to play in urban transformation. With planners 

and residents, major projects will offer a new look at 

the city, its memory and its current dynamics. 

The art of being together - singular/universal: exchanging 

and sharing, two key words to give the 

project its direction, to anchor it among the public 

at large, and to connect popular gatherings with demanding 

works; in short to enable each of us to express 

our own sensibility and yet participate in major collective 

events. 

Mythologies: memories of a port, a maritime world, 

a linguistic Babel, football, taxis, petrochemicals or 

ocean liners feed into our contemporary odysseys, 

today’s mythological tales. 

Format 

High points and shared moments: popular gatherings 

(Port Symphony, Nuit de la Tchatche, etc.) will give 

rhythm to the event, which will include a series of 

rituals, participative games, artistic micro-events, 

collective theatre, moments of conviviality, etc. 

Programmes and commissions from European and 

local artists: plural programmes, installations or touring 

shows associating local and European artists to confront 

questions, formats or shared territories: a contemporary 

funfair (village des Entresorts), Pixel City (the city as 

a gigantic screen), the Rue de l’Europe (26 windows 

open onto 26 capitals), the Contes Urbains (soaps in 

the city), the Champ Harmonique (wind concert). 

Lieux Publics, the operator of Via Marseilles, have 

already approached the most important of their 

future partners, including Metropolis from Copenhagen 

in Denmark, the Oerol Festival from Terschellings 

(Netherlands), Bunker from Ljubljana 

(Slovenia) and the Festival of Casablanca. 

29



1.3.B 

Existing 

international 

events will 

develop Euro- 

Mediterranean 

programmes 


The projects for the major festivals in the area, 

as presented in the pre-selection report, have been 

specified. 

30 

Les Suds Festival in Arles 

From 2009 to 2013, the “Les Ateliers du Midi” programme, 

in partnership with the Cité de la Musique in 

Marseilles, proposes to focus on five families of instruments 

associated with music whose roots and development 

have crossed the Euro-Mediterranean space. 

This programme may ultimately be completed by 

workshops with the Compagnie Rassegna, entitled 

“The Children of the Lute”, about the descendants 

of this instrument (Spanish guitar, mandolin, saz, oud, 

Greek bouzouki, Algerian mandole, Corsican cetera, 

Calabrian chitarra battente, etc.). 

The International Photography 

Encounters in Arles 

A commission for a Mediterranean Photographic 

Mission by artists from Europe and the Mediterranean 

will be launched in 2009. 

In 2013, documentaries and exhibitions by artists from 

the Mediterranean Basin will present work inspired by 

the different cultures that they represent. A dimension 

linked to travel and to ports will be sought, recalling 

that Arles was long the highest port on the Rhone and, 

like Marseilles, a land of departure and arrival, where 

different cultures were obliged to discover each other. 

The main Turkish, Italian and Egyptian photographic 

families, as well as specific sources (Arab Image Foundation 

of Beirut especially), will be explored to tell the 

story. The creations of contemporary artists using 

photography will be shown alongside vernacular 

photography to provide a rounded view of the work. 

Commissioners from Europe and the Mediterranean 

Basin will be invited to direct the different elements 

of the programme. Discussions are under way to associate 

European institutes with this programme (Forma 

in Milan, FotoEspana in Madrid, The Photographers’ 

Gallery in London, Foam in Amsterdam, Tres culturas 

in Séville etc.) in order to co-curate exhibitions in 

these different locations. 

Exchanges will be arranged to allow Mediterranean 

artists to benefit from the large number of experts who 

are present in Arles for the Festivals, inviting them 

to participate in courses or criticism readings. In the 

park of the Ateliers SNCF (SNCF Workshops), the 

huge railway yards currently undergoing renovation, 

an important foundation for the Arts, exhibition 

spaces, residencies, higher education and lifelong 

training in photography and digital arts will be inaugurated 

in the run up to 2013 (see Chap. 3 p. 113). 

The International Opera Festival 

in Aix-en-Provence 

The intercultural dimension of the programme is being 

reinforced in the 2008 festival, with the spotlight on 

the music of the Mediterranean. Commissions and 

residences have been awarded to Mediterranean 

composers (Moneim Adwan in 2008, Saad Haddad 

in 2009). For 2009 a project with Musicatreize and the 

poet Mahmoud Darwich has been defined, which will 



go on tour across the area of the bid and internationally. 

Workshops of initiation into Arab song and music will 

be organised in the school. The Festival Académie 

will also be involved. 

The Grand Saint Jean project arranged by Patrick 

Bouchain will constitute one of the strong points of 

the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” in the Aix-en- 

Provence district. 

The International Piano Festival 

in La Roque d’Anthéron 

The festival is diversifying the venues for its concerts 

and activities, multiplying residencies and master 

classes, developing encounters with works and artists 

from North and South and preparing a range of Euro- 

Mediterranean concerts and workshops for 2013. 

The International Festival 

of Fashion and Photography 

in Hyères 

The Festival of the Villa Noailles in Hyères (built by 

the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens) will celebrate 

its twenty-eighth edition in 2013. The town of Hyères 

and its festival, in the Toulon-Provence-Mediterranean 

urban district, will open itself up to cross-Mediterranean 

exchanges especially with the city of Tangier. From 

2009, and until 2013, the festival will organise workshops 

for the general public, for professionals and for 

children with artists participating in the festival: 

Gaspard Yurkievich, Felipe Oliveira-Baptista, 

Romain Kremer and Sébastien Meunier. Finally, 2013 

will also see the inauguration of an International Centre 

of Research and Creation for fashion and costume, 

with manufacturing workshops, a “tissutheque” (a 

fabric library) and residences. 

The Festival of Marseilles 

As the Festival’s director writes in the 2008 programme, 

“The Festival of Marseilles acts as a window that opens on 

to the world and, in particular, on to the Mediterranean, 

and gives our Phocean City every chance of gaining the title 

of Marseilles European Capital of Culture in 2013.” 

On many occasions, the festival has shown its attachment 

to this programming strategy, and we have outstanding 

production and programming in mind for 2013. 

The Fiesta des Suds Festival 

in Marseilles 

As a highly reactive festival, the Fiesta des Suds is 

always up to speed with the latest developments in 

musical trends from around the planet. The 2013 

festival will be the occasion for exceptional encounters 

between the young generation and confirmed masters 

in the Docks des Suds. 

The Five Continents Jazz 

Festival of Marseilles 

This festival will be celebrating its fourteenth edition 

in 2013. Installed in a unique open-air location in the 

gardens of Marseilles’ Longchamp Palace, from 2012 

it will be developing workshops to prepare a special 

Euro-Mediterranean edition. 

The Marsatac Festival 

This festival of electronic music in Marseilles has 

scheduled a number of specific projects including 

13 nights, 13 venues, 13 parties, and a “musical cruise” 

with a barge in the maritime confines of the area 

implicated in the bid. But its main event is the “Fantasia 

Electronique”: a freighter specially equipped and laden 

with European artists (musicians/street artists/performers/DJs/ 

video jockeys), that will depart from Marseilles 

for Tangier via Barcelona. The key idea of the 

project is to link the two shores of the Mediterranean 

by stopping over en route at Europe’s biggest festival 

of electronic music: Barcelona’s Sonar Festival. 

This ground-breaking cruise is organised around the 

resemblance between the cities of Marseilles and 

Tangier. It is a project that will fascinate and attract 

a huge audience and will help, yet again, to promote 

the image and the reputation of the Northern part of 

the Kingdom of Morocco. 

The event will combine tradition and modernity, reflecting 

these two cities that are open to the world. 

31



Les Musiques, the international 

festival of modern 

music in Marseilles 

The Experimental Music Group of Marseilles (GMEM) 

has been in existence for over twenty years and its 

annual festival highlights the best in contemporary 

music. The group is always mindful of the need to make 

this form as accessible as possible to people who often, 

in principle, feel themselves excluded. In the same 

way as the Five Continents Jazz Festival, 2012 will be 

an opportunity to organise workshops that will lead 

to the programming of a special festival in 2013. 

The International Documentary 

Festival (FID) in Marseilles 

A forum bringing together film festivals from around 

the Mediterranean will take place in 2013 (Barcelona 

FICCO, Festival of Tétouan, TunisDOC Festival, 

etc.). Directors will be welcomed in residence and will 

take part in the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée”. 

FIDLab 

In the context of the International Documentary 

Festival (FID) in Marseilles, Marseille-Provence 2013 

will be supporting the FIDLab programme of scholarships 

awarded to projects and workshops for the 

benefit of young film directors. This programme will 

be developed from 2009 to 2013. Within FIDLab young 

directors will be able to meet filmmakers and other 

32 

professionals, benefit from their advice and gain support 

for the production and distribution of their work. 

The International Science and 

Cinema Forum (RISC) 

This Forum, organised by the Polly Maggoo Association, 

demonstrates the wealth and strength of creative documentary 

film by examining the work of science and the 

cinema, especially with young audiences, during sessions 

followed by exchanges with directors and researchers. 

The aim of the Forum, in 2009, is to consolidate and 

develop international partnerships with scientific film 

festivals of cinema in Europe and North Africa. 

The actOral Festival 

Each year, the actOral Festival invites a score of 

playwrights, poets, or novelists to put their texts on 

stage. These authors are chosen for their exploration 

of new language forms in phase with contemporary 

changes. As the festival has gone on, the desire to get 

these new language forms heard has widened to include 

other arts and different forms of stage writing (theatre, 

dance, visual arts, circus, etc.). 

For 2013, the actOral Festival intends to pursue its 

project by seeking a dual development: to improve 

the alignment of the project with the area by setting 

up new instances of cultural mediation; and to enhance 

international awareness, with the creation of high 

points devoted each year to new foreign entries. 

Second Nature Festival & the 

Ecole Supérieure d’Art of Aix-en- 

Provence (Art College) 

City 2.0 or the E-Topie of the City 

This project continues the extension of a joint experiment 

which articulates the fields of art, research, 

teaching and current forms of expression, on the basis 

of the specifics of each of the two partners and their 

shared commitment in the field of new technologies. 

The project takes its point of departure in a primary 

apprehension about the individual and his/her place 

in the real world in the digital age. 

The City 2.0 project will be developed from 2011, and 

will be especially concerned about our relationship 

with the city in a technological world subject to 

constant change and where environmental issues are 

increasingly central. 

In “Art and Climate Change”, artists and scientists will 

address one of the more emblematic crises of a globalised 

society and will attempt to provide their response. 

Reshumance – Transistance 

Since the end of the “Année de l’Algérie” (Algerian 

Year) in France, a process of creative work on both 

sides of the Mediterranean has been pursued not only 

with confirmed artists and graduates from the Aix-en- 

Provence and Algiers Schools of Art, but also with 

the students themselves. The process involves developing 

a multimedia-publishing workshop (print, audio 

and DVD) and increasing the transnational mobility 



of the artists. At the end of a 3-year cycle, an exhibition 

of multimedia works will be organised, along with 

performances and discussions. 

The Dansem Festival 

Following a project in partnership with the Anna Lindh 

Foundation, this festival is now developing its activities 

in Beirut, Valletta, Tunis and Cairo. As of 2010, it will 

organise joint workshops whose results will constitute 

an important part of the programming. 

Babel Med 

Since 2005 this market/festival has grown to become 

a key event in world music and, in particular, in 

Mediterranean music. Master classes led by experts 

in European and Mediterranean music will be integrated 

into the festival until 2013. 

Écritures Croisées 

(Hybrid Writing) 

in Aix-en-Provence 

When created at the start of the ’80s, Écritures Croisées 

(Hybrid Writing) had intended to propose a cycle of 

conferences around the Mediterranean. The death of 

Fernand Braudel, who was so closely associated with 

this project, put a halt to these plans. 

The Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of 

Culture project, the principal aim of which is to promote 

Euro-Mediterranean exchanges, presents a fine opportunity 

to turn again towards an idea of the Mediterranean 

that has too often been ignored over recent years. 

To do this, Écritures Croisées will, from 2009-2010, 

initiate a series of conferences, discussions and exchanges 

with writers, poets, translators and other intellectuals, 

and seek to intersect with all art forms linked with 

writing and the literature of Southern countries. 

These events, hosted by the Cité du Livre in Aix-en- 

Provence – an appropriate location to bring together 

an already very faithful audience – will open on a regular 

high point, in mid-summer, in order to link up with the 

International Opera Festival. 

The Fête du Livre (Book Party) in 2013 will adopt an 

exceptional character and importance, and will be 

wholly devoted to the great figures of literary and artistic 

creation from the Mediterranean rim (Palestine, Portugal, 

Spain, Greece, Algeria, Turkey, etc.). 

The Marseilles International 

Poetry Centre (CIPM) 

Between 2009 and 2013, the centre will develop poets’ 

residencies, creative writing workshops, public readings, 

the work of translation and publishing and 

encounters with poets from Europe and the Mediterranean. 

In 2013, it will open the first salon to review 

Mediterranean poetry. 

Festival of Arab Cinema 

Although today still limited in size, this festival will 

be developed with the help of Marseille-Provence 

2013 in partnership with the International Documentary 

Festival, other film festivals around the Mediterranean 

and the Tangier Cinema Library. 

33



As well as the major festivals, cultural operators, 

and the major arts institutions of the area, have 

established programming projects for the 2013 

season that may evolve over the coming years, but 

which will bear witness to the strength of their 

commitment to the priority themes of the bid. 

34 

Example of the Marseilles Opera 

The projected 2013 season of the Opera is based on 

the theme “Marseille, porte des peuples” (Marseilles, 

gateway to the people of the world). 

Marseilles and the people of the Mediterranean 

Co-production of Nabucco with the Cairo Opera; 

anniversary of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers in 

co-production with an Italian festival; proposition to 

be defined around Greece at the Théâtre Sylvain; 

restaging of the production of Sampiero Corso by 

Marseilles composer Tomasi; commission for a contemporary 

opera based on a play by Albert Camus for the 

Camus Centenary in 2013. 

Marseilles and Europe 

With Désirée Clary, production of a Swedish opera 

and projection of Abel Gance’s Napoléon with orchestra; 

restaging of the production of L’Aiglon at the 

Schönbrun Palace; live transmission to Marseilles of 

productions from the Vienna State Opera and/or La 

Scala in Milan; co-production with the St. Petersburg 

Opera, directed by Charles Roubaud and conducted 

by Valery Gergiev. 



1.3.C 

The exhibitions 

of 2013 

The exhibition projects presented in the pre-selection 

report have all been subject to the: 

– appointment of curators, 

– establishment of pilot projects based on the 

scenario, 

– search for partners and co-producers, 

– identification of exhibition locations, 

– firm scheduling in the calendar, 

– establishment of an outline budget. 

The relevant information is presented in detail in 

the appendix. 


“Migrations 

and Memories”: 

5 Exhibitions 

Programme 2 

“Mobility and Migrations 

in Europe and the Mediterranean” 

This inaugural exhibition of the future MuCEM, 

co-produced with the Cité International de l’Histoire 

et de l’Immigration (National Centre for History and 

Immigration), will tell the story of Europe and of the 

Mediterranean as the history of the movement and 

exchange of goods, people and cultures. It will present 

a view of the current situation and the challenges 

posed to the Europe of Schengen. 

Programme 3 

“Vessels, Navigation, Navigators” 

In the 5th century B.C., Pytheas, a navigator from Marseilles, 

sailed to Iceland and the Baltic Sea. The history 

of the Mediterranean and of its civilisations is one that 

is centered on travel. It has been built through boldness, 

science and technology. This long history, up to the 

present day, is being recounted and presented in Marseilles, 

while the COMEX is prolonging the deep-sea adventures 

of Pytheas. The originality of this exhibition resides in 

its being organised in association with the maritime 

museums of the great ports of the Mediterranean. 

Programme 10 

“Sharing the Roma Memory” 

In partnership with the Slovakian Capital city, a 

travelling exhibition will be produced by the “Arlaten” 

ethnographic museum in Arles in the framework of 

the multi-disciplinary “Sharing the Roma Memory 

– Deltas of Europe and the Mediterranean” programme. 

It will present the results of surveys, accounts, documents, 

objects, practices and works of the Roma culture, 

showing how that culture has changed. The information 

will be collected between 2009 and 2013 during 

a full academic cycle in lower-secondary schools by 

young pupils who are both Roma and non-Roma. 

Programme 4 

“Art Confronts Time” 

The Centre International de Conservation et de 

Restauration du Patrimoine (CICRP – International 

Centre of Heritage Conservation and Restoration), 

recently installed in Marseilles, is one of the most 

modern in the world. The exhibition that it will organise 

will aim to familiarise the widest possible public 

– especially school audiences – with the threat that 

time poses to works of art. At the same time, the 

science and techniques that allow this threat to be 

overcome will be presented, alongside the requirements 

and new possibilities of conservation and transmission 

of our cultural heritage to future generations. 

35



Programme 5 

“Theatres of Pestilence” 

During its long history, Marseilles has undergone three 

epidemics of plague and cholera which still mark the 

city’s imagination and which have given birth to many 

outstanding works of art and literature. On the basis 

of a historical evocation of the great pandemics in 

Europe and the Mediterranean, the exhibition will 

seek to underline the permanence of the theme. We 

will refer to the historical figures who lived through 

the sickness and the terror that it inspired, and we 

will examine the nature of today’s great scourges, the 

figurative blindness or understanding that they cause, 

and the bursts of energy and creativity that they 

inspire. 

36 


“Values and Beliefs”: 

4 Exhibitions 

Programme 18 

“Athens, Cordoba, Jerusalem” 

This exhibition will recount the long history of the 

transmission of cultural heritages and vill allow visitors 

to discover the sources of their own history and of the 

values that illuminate it by revealing the strata and 

streams of knowledge – texts, tales, images and legends 

– that have fashioned the visions of reason and faith 

in the Mediterranean and in Europe. It will endeavour, 

above all, to cast light on the current state of the 

dialogue – or conflict – between the two founding 

aspects of our Euro-Mediterranean civilisations: reason 

and revelation. Athens, Cordoba and Jerusalem are 

the symbolic capitals of this heritage. 

Programme 19 

“Albert Camus 

and La Pensée de Midi” 

An exhibition in 2013 will celebrate the one hundredth 

anniversary of the birth of Albert Camus. The 

exhibition will honour a writer who, more than any 

other in the modern period, embodies the dazzling 

yet tragic nature of the Mediterranean; a writer who 

pitted the passion of his humanism against all the 

totalitarianisms of the 20th century, and who brought 

the very modern idea of a “Mediterranean universe” 

to that combat. 

Programme 20 

“Sharing the Mediterranean’s 

Sacred Places” 

The question of religious identity is, without doubt, one 

of the more sensitive issues around the idea of “living 

together” in Europe and the Mediterranean. From this 

point of view, our inland sea seems increasingly to be a 

space of division and conflict. The exhibition will highlight 

one of the more interesting and less well-known 

phenomena: how religious communities share and 

exchange ideas and, especially through certain places 

of pilgrimage and religious celebrations, how Euro- 

Mediterranean religions communicate and interact. 

Programme 21 

“Le Partage des Midis. 

Painters and the Mediterranean” 

The requisite organisation by any European Capital 

of Culture of a “major fine art exhibition” takes on a 

special character in the area of Marseilles-Provence, 

a land of creation that attracted Europe’s greatest 

painters in their quest not only for the Southern light, 

but also for the imagination and the mythologies of 

the Mediterranean. 

Over the past few years, Provence has proved that 

great exhibitions are no longer the preserve of the 



Grand Palais in Paris: “Van Gogh” in Arles, “Sous le 

Soleil Exactement” (Under the Sun, Exactly) in 

Marseilles, “Cézanne en Provence” in Aix-en-Provence. 

The number of visitors to these shows has made 

them international benchmark events. 

Fortified by this experience, we have set ourselves 5 

aims for the 2013 exhibition before proposing a 

definitive theme: 

– A unifying approach: the great museums of the area 

will be mobilised around a common theme and will 

benefit from sharing publicity and booking systems. 

– Ground-breaking exhibition set design: this means 

setting out exhibitions in such a way as to provide 

the public with the keys that allow a fuller appreciation 

of the works and better understanding of 

context and the process of creation. 

– A wide-ranging pedagogical approach: a partnership 

will be signed with the Aix-Marseilles academic 

authorities to launch a call for projects to 1,000 

teachers that will enable tens of thousands of pupils 

in primary and secondary education to benefit from 

the exhibition as the climax of a year’s work. 

– Events and projects intersecting around the exhibition: 

the dynamics of this project must enable other 

cultural figures and other museums to be brought 

together around the selected theme and allow commissions 

to be awarded to contemporary artists. 

– Establishing the link with the artists’ studios: 

Provence boasts a number of emblematic sites that 

are both attractive and fascinating: The Sainte 

Victoire Mountain, Cézanne’s studio in Aix-en- 

Provence, l’Estaque and the bay of Marseilles, the 

castle of Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso at Vauvenargues, 

and many more places open to visitors. 

The Themes of the Exhibition 

Since Antiquity, Provence has been a special place 

of artistic exchange between the North and South of 

Europe. In the 19th century, the Mediterranean became 

a centre of attraction, a providential place, for 

painters. Everything or almost everything has been 

said about the special relationship of painters with 

the light of the South, about the attraction that the 

light exercised on artists such as Van Gogh or Cézanne, 

whose emblematic figure brought the greatest names 

in modern art on a pilgrimage to the South: Picasso, 

Braque, Matisse, de Staël, Masson and many others. 

Provisionally entitled “Le Partage des Midis: Painters 

and the Mediterranean”, we are preparing the organisation 

of such a project and exploring several themes 

with the curators of the museums concerned and with 

a number of art historians - Jean-Hubert Martin, Serge 

Fauchereau, Germain Viatte, Serge Lemoine, 

Guy Cogeval. Several often complementary themes 

are being explored, such as: 

The Cubist World 

Cubism influenced a huge number of artists in the 

European world. Many of them, like Cézanne himself, 

came to cubism on the shores of the Mediterranean: 

between 1907 and 1910 Braque was at l’Estaque, and 

Picabia at Cassis and Saint-Tropez. Between 1907 

and 1920, Parisian cubists lived and worked along the 

coast from Menton to Barcelona: Survage in Nice 

and Villefranche, La Fresnaye in Grasse, Gray in 

Collioure, Gleizes in Perpignan, Lhote in Amélie-les- 

Bains, with Picasso, Gleizes and Picabia in Barcelona, 

without counting Céret “the Barbizon of Cubism” as 

Apollinaire called it, where Picasso, Braque, Gray, 

Herbin and Max Jacob all worked. The exhibition 

will not only focus on the great cubist masters, but 

will also look for the first time at the way cubism spread 

around the world. 

Paul Cézanne: Still Lifes and their Posterity 

in the Art of the 20th Century 

Even more than his landscapes, Cézanne’s “apples”, 

with some other motifs and subjects, are at the heart 

of his creation. They allowed him to exercise his ideas 

on composition, structure and space, while exploring 

volume, colour and form in the absence of any narration, 

any allusion, or any symbolism. 

These still lifes have had a decisive influence on a 

great many European artists over several generations: 

from Paul Gauguin to Piet Mondrian, including 

Charles Edouard Jeanneret, who as Le Corbusier 

founded purism; he referred on many occasions to 

Cézanne in his own pictures and was directly inspired 

by him. 

37




“Genders or Genres”: 

1 Exhibition 

Programme 27 

“Genders, Genres 

and Minorities. Images 

and Representations 

of Women around 

the Mediterranean” 

As a cultural and geographical area, the Mediterranean 

is frequently seen as an arena where social interactions 

between the sexes are characterised by patriarchal 

control and the male domination of women. The 

violence and machismo of men and the submission 

and victimisation of women have been emphasised 

to the detriment of feminist resistance and struggle. 

As a counter to this stereotypical vision, the exhibition 

will seek especially, on the basis of contemporary 

artistic production by women (literature, cinema, 

visual arts, dance and theatre), to show both the rapid 

changes occurring in representations of women and 

the richness of the experiences that are profoundly 

altering the traditional relationships between the 

genders, both in the North and in the South. 

38 


“The Sharing of Water”: 

1 Exhibition 

Programme 32 

“The Sharing of Water” 

On the superb promontory that constitutes the ex-J1 

harbour station, a huge exhibition designed to be 

spectacular, educational and fun all at once will be 

devoted to “The Sharing of Water”. The exhibition 

will take its inspiration from the example of the 

inaugural exhibition of the millennium celebrations 

in Paris: “Le Jardin Planétaire”. 

The rarity and the richness of water, the tensions 

generated by its sharing, the fragility of ecosystems 

(rivers, wetlands, banks, shores and the deep seas), 

biodiversity, the fear of floods, its depths and the 

monsters that lurk beneath, the pleasures of the bath 

and life-giving rain, agricultural, urban and industrial 

uses…all of these themes are included in an overall 

presentation of the perpetual cycle of water, between 

land, sea and sky, from salt-water, to water vapour, 

and freshwater. 

The visitor will be invited to embark on a multi- 

disciplinary experience to discover all of the facets of 

the issues surrounding water: by concentrating on the 

Mediterranean Basin and by comparing these contrasting 

lands, we will focus on the worldwide importance 

of water resource management, security and public 

health, sharing and equity between neighbouring 

countries, population and worldwide foodstuff markets, 

adaptation to climate change and contributions to 

carbon capture or energy production. 



Table of exhibitions 

themes Exhibitions Exhibitions Locations Dates Partners 

1 Migrations 

and Memories 

2 Values 

and Beliefs 

3 Genders 

or Genres 

4 The Sharing 

of Water 

Mobility and Migrations 

in Europe & the Mediterranean 

Vessels, Navigation, Navigators Maurice Pomey, 

MMSH 

MUCEM MUCEM January – 

March 2013 

Museums in 

Marseilles 

Sharing the Roma Memory Museon Arlaten Travelling 

Exhibition 

January – 


Art Confronts Time CICRP CICRP January – 


Theatres of Pestilence F. et G. Viatte Museums in 


Athens, Cordoba, 

Jerusalem 

Albert Camus and 

La Pensée De Midi 

Sharing the Mediterranean's 

Sacred Places 

Le Partage Des Midis: 

Painters and the Mediterranean 

Genders, Genres and Minorities. 

Images & Representations of Women 

around the Mediterranean 

T. Fabre 

A. de Libera 

The Sharing of Water P-H. Roche 

J-M. Providence 

MuCEM Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations) 

MMSH Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme (Mediterranean Institute for Human Sciences) 

CICRP Centre Interrégional de Conservation et de Restauration du Patrimoine (Interregional Centre for the Conservation and 

Restoration of Heritage) 

CRM Centre Régional de la Méditerranée (Regional Mediterranean Centre) 

CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Scientific Research Centre) 

EHESS Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Higher Educational Establishment for Social Sciences) 

ONEP Office National de l’Eau Potable (National Office of Drinking Water) 

CEDES Centre d’Etudes sur le Développement Economique et Social (Research Centre for Economic and Social Development) 

IFPO Institut Français du Proche Orient (French Institute of the Middle East). 

Cité Internationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration ; Museum 

Europaïscher Kulturen Staatliche, Berlin ; Museum of Europe, 

Brussels ; Museo de Historia de la Imigracion, Barcelona ; 

Immigrant Museum, Denmark ; Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat ; 

Institute of Migration, Finland 

Navy Museum, Paris ; Maritime Museum, Barcelona ; Bibliotheca 

Alexandrina, Alexandria ; Bardo Museum, Tunis ; Maritime Museum, 

Genoa ; Roskilde Museum, Denmark - Navy Museum, Stockholm 

2012 – 2013 Slovakia ; Muséon Arlaten in collaboration with the les Suds Festival 

April – 

June 2013 

CRM April – 


B. Stora Granet Museum April – 


D. Albera Art Gallery of 

the Conseil 

Général 

Aix-en-Provence 

- Museums 

across the Region 

October – 

December 2013 

August – 

November 2013 

N. Descendre MuCEM October – 

December 2013 

J1 July – 

October 2013 

Restoration Centres, Maastricht and Brussels ; Ecole Supérieure 

des Arts, Liège ; Restoration Centre, Palermo ; Correspondents: 

CICRP, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt 

Musée du Louvre, Paris ; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 

Paris-Academia, Venice ; Ludwig Collection, Aachen ; 

Staatliche Museum, Berlin 

Bodmer Foundation, Geneva ; 

Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes, CNRS 

Université d’Alger, Algier ; Société des Etudes Camusiennes ; 

Rencontres Méditerranéennes de Lourmarin ; 

Association Mémoires de Méditerranée 

University of Durham, UK ; Université Foscari, Venice ; Université 

Saint-Joseph, Bayreuth ; Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria ; 

Fondation Tres Culturas del Mediterraneo, Seville 

Musée d’Orsay, Paris 

EHSS, MarseillesMMSH, Aix en Provence ; Bibliothèque 

Nationale du Royaume du Maroc ; Centre Jacques Berque, 

Rabat -CEDES, Cairo ; IFPO, Damascus 

Société des Eaux, Marseilles ; ONEP, Morocco ; Société du Canal 

de Provence ; Bibliotheca Alexandrina ; IRD, Marseilles ; 

Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris ; Fondation Sigma, Tangier 

39

Opening Event (programme 6; see opposite page). “A boat parade. Each vessel, flying a European flag, 

will be accompanied by a guest boat invited from a Mediterranean country” – Image c-ktre 



The parade will play on the speed of movement among 

the vessels and the establishment of symbolic links 

between them. Overall coordination will be entrusted 

to Groupe F, who notably produced the America’s 

Cup display at Valencia in 2007. This parade will, in 

addition, be accompanied by a sound show (commentaries, 

interviews, different sound effects, music, etc.) 

so that everyone can also follow what’s happening on 

the local media via mobile phones or podcasts. 

The eleven opening nights: 

“Exterior Daylight” (see p. 52) 

“The Savoir-Fairs” (see p. 44) 

“Revelations” (see p. 58) 

“Seas Online” (see p. 53) 

The “Digue du Large” (see p. 51) 

“Apparitions, Mysteries and Snowballs” (see p. 58) 

“Mobility and Migrations in Europe and the Mediterranean” 

(see p. 35) 

“Art Confronts Time” (see p. 35) 

“Vessels, Navigation, Navigators” (see p. 35) 

“Theatres of Pestilence” (see p. 36) 

“Sharing the Roma Memory - Deltas of Europe and 

the Mediterranean” (see p. 35) 

Programme 7 

The Neighbours’ Party 

The Neighbours’ Party will open season 2 of the Capital 

year and the Via Marseilles European festival. Marseilles- 

Provence is all about cultural diversity and getting on to- 

40 41 

1.3.D 

The major 

popular events 

of 2013 

For each of the 8 great popular events that will 

punctuate the 2013 season: 

– project leaders or project teams promoting artists 

and crews from the area have been appointed, 

– draft models of the projects have been drawn up, 

– the venues, dates and partners of the events have 

been identified. 

Special attention has been paid to the opening event: 

the experience of previous European Capitals teaches 

us that, in fact, the success of the year is, in large 

part, dependent on the success or failure of the popular, 

artistic, media-relayed dynamics created during 

the opening event. As the years go on, there is a real 

risk of these opening events becoming hackneyed, 

a process amplified by fast changing cultural expectations 

and activities especially among young people. 

To offset this, major efforts must be made to innovate 

and to design a project that will be able to evolve and 

adapt to change over the coming years. 

Strategy 1 | Theme1 

Programme 6 

Opening Event 

The Opening Event illustrates some of the major 

themes that will be explored during the rest of the 

year. It will be comprised of a central project and 

eleven “opening nights” of events that will take place 

over the course of the following months. 

The Central Project 

The central project will take place on the sea in a bay 

with the Digue du Large (the great Marseilles Sea 

Wall) at its centre, forming a space that is sufficiently 

open to welcome the public in a large number of 

venues from the Corniche to the Ile du Frioul, including 

the seafront hotels and restaurants from the J4 

to the J1 and as far as L’Estaque. 

The event will essentially be constituted of a défilé of 

“heavy” ships that will not be affected by bad weather. 

These ships can generally be seen only from afar but 

they are always visible at sea between Toulon and Fos; 

all categories of vessel will be represented. Naval vessels 

from Toulon (airship carriers and cruisers) will steam 

past along with merchant vessels, container ships, 

cruise liners, car-ferries, bulk methane carriers and oil 

tankers, all accompanied by tugs and lightships. 

Each vessel will fly a different European flag and will 

be accompanied by a guest vessel from a Mediterranean 

country. The entire défilé will be inspired by two of 

the central themes of the bid: “Migrations and Memories” 

and “The Sharing of Water”.



gether. The Neighbours’ Party is not so much a multicultural 

vision, but seeks rather to put the accent on the 

singularity of each of us, and on the force of union. 

Disguise is the entrance ticket: it allows us to abolish 

age, origin or gender. The work of organising this 

contemporary costume ball will be supported by writers, 

directors and professional costume designers. 

The centrepiece is a grand banquet/parade. A huge 

table set up over 2 km through the city centre will also 

serve as a catwalk for a parade of outrageous confections 

by artists and residents, stand-up acts, singers, dancers, 

acrobats and mimes. Make-up artists, costume designers, 

visual artists and choreographers from all over 

Europe will help the participants get their minute of 

celebrity just right. A hundred chefs will prepare soups 

and salads, sweets and savouries on the spot using 

ingredients provided by the participants themselves. 

A series of “snap” participative arts events will be 

organised: 

– a grand popular concert led by 8 European and 

Mediterranean conductors using basic objects and 

the vocal and corporeal sounds of the participants. 

The raw sound will be processed live by DJs and 

other electro-sound engineers; 

– living tableaux posing for the lenses of great photographers 

- body banners, letters, anagrams, multicoloured 

clothing; 

– light shows made up of camera flashes, with each 

participant as a pixel in a composition; 

– a giant karaoke. 

42 

The evening will end with a Grand Neighbours’ Ball 

where the steps of the dancers will be led by European 

choreographers, with the music being provided by 

European dance bands from the Dancing Europe 

project and by the inhabitants of the city. 

Programme 8 

Fashion Sails 

The fashion-textile-clothing sector is an asset not 

only because of major operators such as the Cité 

Euroméditerranéenne de la Mode in Marseilles, the 

Villa Noailles in Hyères, the Musée de la Mode and 

l’Institut Mode Méditerranée in Marseilles, but also 

because a certain number of businesses in the sector 

are making considerable efforts, in a difficult market, 

to avoid having to relocate their activities. The aim 

of the Fashion Sails project is to honour the great 

fashion designers by getting both children and adults 

involved in a unifying project. 

A project involving sails was preferred to the classic 

catwalk show, suitable for a large capacity venue and 

the great names of Haute Couture. 

The sails in question will be not only those of traditional 

vessels or the highly sophisticated sails of modern racing 

boats, but also the more modest sails of windsurfing 

boards or kite surfers. Ultimately, nothing would prevent 

us from looking at sails as what they can also be from 

both the religious and poetic standpoints (knowing 

that the French for sail can also mean veil). 

Using sails as a support means that we can plan important 

sponsorship events in the form of signed 

mainsails from famous yachts; but it also allows us to 

involve the general public and the manufacturers of 

a complex product that calls on different skills. The 

workshops will take place in 2011 and 2012 and will 

function by pairing a fashion designer’s signature (haute 

couture or ready-to-wear) with that of a sail designer 

or manufacturer. In this way, we will create for example 

a Jil Sander sail with the Jean Perrin upper-secondary 

school in Marseilles (BTS Design), but also a Sakina 

M’its sail with an association of women from a particular 

district, or a Christian Lacroix sail with the 

Camargue upper-secondary school. 

All of these pieces will correspond to the “Migrations” 

theme. In 2013, five events will present the production 

of the workshops: “Vire-Vire” in the port of Marseilles 

(mixed class regatta), a regatta of yachts from Hyères 

at Martigues, a competition of windsurfers and kite 

surfers at the Salins de Giraud, a regatta of model 

boats at l’Etang des Aulnes and the new French 

Olympic yacht at Hyères. 

The personalities involved include Christian Lacroix, 

Dries Van Noten, John Galliano, Alber Elbaz, 

Agatha Ruiz of Prada, Yohji Yamamoto, Vivienne 

Westwood, Elie Saab, Jil Sander, Sakina M’its, Giorgio 

Armani and the younger artists, Gaspard Yurkievich, 

Romain Kremer, Julien Dossena, Sandra Backlund, 

Henrik Viskov and Didier Parakian, among others. 




Programme 22 

Camus Centenary 

We will be looking to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary 

of the birth of Albert Camus with the widest 

popular public. A special football match will be organised 

for the Albert Camus 2013 cup, unique in the history of 

the sport and in the relation between sport and culture. 

In 1930, Albert Camus started playing football with the 

Racing Universitaire team in Algiers. This passion for 

team games and his position of goalkeeper, solitary yet 

allied with others, suited him so well that it never completely 

left him. He himself thought it one of the strong 

points of his upbringing and one of the traits of his character: 

“I learnt right away that a ball never comes at you from 

where you’re expecting it. I found that useful in life…”. 

The image of the “Zidane generation” articulates the 

symbol of integration. But could Camus, alert to this form 

of communion as he was, ever have imagined that football, 

at the start of this 3rd millennium, would be such a 

phenomenon, exacerbating social fractures and the object 

of such vast financial wheeling and dealing? Would Camus 

recognise his vision of football as salvation? 

The event will be prepared from 2011 by a programme 

of courses and creative workshops in community associations 

and schools in the inner-city districts of 

Marseilles-Provence and Algiers. 

The matches will take place in Marseilles’ Vélodrome 

stadium and in Algiers. The match in the Vélodrome will 

also be an occasion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 

Olympique de Marseilles’ victory in the European Cup 


Programme 33 

Water Courses 

In 2013, in particular with the “The Sharing of 

Water” exhibition, the theme of water will be examined 

in all its political, historical, scientific, social 

and artistic dimensions. However, it would be a pity 

not to take advantage of the exceptional spaces of 

the area to offer spectators the opportunity to find 

out more about these issues, through poetry and 

writing played out on the bodies of water 

themselves. 

We have thus asked Ilotopie to develop this project. 

Ilotopie is a unique theatre company (directed by 

Bruno Schnebelin) installed for many years (since 

1979) at the heart of an area of salt- and freshwater 

creeks in Port Saint Louis du Rhône. 

Intrigued by the new forms of expression that flourish 

on urban shores, Ilotopie has been working over 

the last six years on “plays with water”, on liquid 

stages that are ultimately left blank, on the crossroads 

of our cities. 

After several years of aquatic experimentation, 

between lake habitats, floating isles and seafarers’ 

myths, the company has shown that astonishing 

presences can emanate from individuals isolated 

on water and that new fields of representation can 

be opened up by choosing aquatic space as a gigantic 

theatre. With the theatre as their work tool 

and a little technology, Ilotopie’s actors have found 

freedom on their liquid stage. They are walkers 

on water and players of fantasy games, guiding our 

dreams or nightmares. Thus, with “Les Oxymorons 

d’Eau” (The Oxymorons of Water, created in 2009), 

“Narcisse Guette” and “Fous de Bassin” (currently 

on tour) they have become accustomed to staging 

the most extraordinary aquatic events for very 

wide audiences. But these water courses, these 

streams of thought, need to be written before we 

can learn to discover the historical and scientific 

wealth of the area. This is why the project will be 

developed in collaboration with Michel Jean, just 

retired from his position as Director of the Société 

du Canal de Provence, which allowed him to spend 

nearly forty years experiencing the aquatic and 

hydrological wealth of the area. 

The project will take place in two phases. Several 

groups of spectators will be invited at the end of the 

day in several locations of the area to travel, in the 

company of Ilotopie, on foot or by bicycle along a 

spectacular path that will allow them to discover a 

piece of their history. Then, later in the evening, 

all the spectators will gather to attend the final show, 

which will take place on a section of l’Etang de Berre. 

This show will be produced in association with other 

neighbours of Ilotopie and the world famous pyrotechnical 

company Groupe F, installed close to Mas 

Thibert in the Camargue. The project could run for 

a full week at the start of September 2013. 

43



In 2009, Ilotopie will start the complex installation 

of its set on l’Etang de Berre. It will be a mysterious 

construction, to be completed gradually year on 

year, and which will only take on its full meaning 

in 2013. Visible from the banks (300,000 people 

live on the shores of l’Etang) it will also be designed 

to be viewed by passengers in aircraft taking off 

or landing from the runways of Marignane 

airport. 

44 

Strategy 2 | Theme1 

Programme 37 

The “Savoir-Fairs” 

The enthusiasm shown for popular festivals is undeniable. 

However, such forms of celebration are generally sparser 

than they used to be these days, due to the fading of the 

symbolic sources that gave rise to them, and their inability 

to resist the logic of cost-effectiveness. The modern 

world has little room for their original modes of production 

(based on donations and religious beliefs). 

On the one hand, this has led to the burgeoning ordinariness, 

or even “dumbing down”, of festivals and 

of the techniques used to put them together. On the 

other, we are seeing the gradual decay, or even loss, 

of the skills of the craftsmen and artists who, by 

transmission from generation to generation, have 

written one of the major chapters of the intangible 

European cultural heritage over the years. 

That’s why we are interested in the creative techniques 

used in: 

– papier-mâché or cardboard sculpture: as seen for example, 

in the fallas in Valencia, or the géants and dragons in 

the North and in Wallonia, in the corsos de carnaval in 

Nice, Viareggio or Putignano, and in the scénographies 

festives used in open-air celebrations in Portugal. 

– light: making ephemeral architectures and stage 

designs as seen around the Mediterranean rim but 

also in Lyons, Toulouse, Helsinki, Basel, etc. 

– fire and fireworks. 

The project consists in organising three workshops: 

in Valencia (Spain) for paper and card, in Putignano 

(Italy) for lightworks and in Arles (France) for fire, 

that will bring craftsmen together with schools of art 

and engineering. The workshops will start in 2010 

with their first results being presented, as of 2011, in 

their cities of residence. In 2012, a workshop will be 

installed in Marseilles bringing together the participants 

of the three European workshops. The creations 

produced by these three workshops will provide matter 

for the production of a festive parade combining light, 

fire and paper, concluding with a fireworks display 

and musical show. 




Programme 54 

A Breath of Fresh Air for Art 

Following the example of the open-air concert given 

by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the foot of 

the Sainte-Victoire Mountain as part of the 2006 

Cézanne season and the Aix-en-Provence Opera 

Festival, a dual programme of travelling promenade 

concerts and open-air film shows is being developed 

for the major sites in the area. Four exceptional sites 

have already undergone feasibility studies. 

Among the more outstanding projects are: 

Twenty Places by the Sea 

The “Twenty Places by the Sea” project was put together 

by the Musicatreize ensemble. It was accepted 

in September 2007 and will be developed biennially 

until 2013. Every two years, Musicatreize will invite 

a French and foreign ensemble to give concerts in 

20 different locales around Marseilles and the associated 

cities. The project will be expanded over the 

years to include several ensembles, residencies and 

European and Mediterranean artists. Although essentially 

musical, the project will also be open to works 

of literature and poetry. 

100 Guitars 

A major work by Rhys Chatham directed by Jean- 

Marc Montera (director of the GRIM), “100 Guitars” 

combines teaching, creative and human functions 

with exemplary lucidity in a joyful musical piece that 

is complex but yet within the reach of almost all levels. 

The recruitment of the musicians, though principally 

from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, will 

nevertheless leave room for Euro-Mediterranean 

guitarists. The concerts will take place in different, 

atypical locations, bringing a plus to the musical event 

itself. For example: Saint Pons, the Château d’Avignon, 

the J1 or other areas that are not normally used 

for concerts, including quarries, supermarket car parks, 

or rural areas. 

Commission to Sonic Youth 

In collaboration with the Musical Research and 

Improvisation Group directed by Jean-Marc Montera, 

a commission is planned for one of the defining 

New York groups in the history of contemporary rock 

music: Sonic Youth. 

The Mediterranean Youth Orchestra (OJM) 

In the service of intercultural dialogue around the 

Mediterranean for over nearly 25 years, the OJM has 

developed relations with more than 1,900 musicians 

in training. For the European Capital project, amateur 

choral workshops will give performances of original 

works by composers who are especially representative 

of both shores (Maurice Ohana and the Lebanese 

composer Zad Moultaka). Moreover, a joint project 

involving a concert and tour with Daniel Barenboïm 

and his West-Eastern Diwan Orchestra is currently 

being studied. 


Programme 60 

The Amateurs’ Night: 

Closing Event 

As we indicated in the pre-selection report, we are 

concerned both to promote the exceptional quality 

and range of amateur arts practice across the Marseilles-Provence 

area and to present the work accomplished 

in the framework of the participative projects 

to the widest possible public (“Everyone is 

Involved”). 

The closing event of the 2013 year, across the entire 

area and in all our cultural institutions, including 

venues for exhibitions, concerts, movies, lectures and 

shows, will show the work carried out between 2009 

and 2013 by community workshops and by the amateur 

companies and groups that have received commissions 

or that have proposed projects around the themes of 

the bid. 

45

Central Market: Cooking Takes to the Stage (programme 9; see opposite page) – Image c-ktre 




Migrations 

and Memories 

Programme 9 

Central Market: 

Cooking takes to the Stage 

The work completed since our first report on the 

theme entitled “North-South Gastronomy” (p. 130, 

2007 file), especially concerning the “Pass the Dishes” 

and “Tasting Caravans” projects and workshops, has 

led us to make changes to the “Night Markets” programme 

and to transform it into a framework project 

of the bid. The title of this theme itself proved to be 

inappropriate, insofar as it highlighted the importance 

of gastronomy at the expense of the other aspects 

(especially those of diversity or public health) and 

did not enable us to give a proper account of the dimensions 

of the project. 

Henceforth, the project will consist of the creation 

of four imaginary markets functioning around the 

clock over four long weekends corresponding to the 

start of the different seasons. These four spaces will 

be installed in different areas of the bid corresponding 

to a city market, a quayside market, a village market 

and an industrial market. Competitions among architects/set 

designers will allow the sets and the lighting 

to be redesigned at each new edition. 

The specifications for these spaces will take the following 

project data into consideration: 

– in each of the four events and in accordance with 

the season, the accent will be placed on the guest 

market. For example, London and Riga will rub 

shoulders with Tangier and Alexandria to trace the 

Euro-Mediterranean trade routes of certain foodstuffs. 

A dozen guest markets will be invited so that, 

by the end of the last event, the entire Euro- 

Mediterranean area will have been covered; 

– the products on sale will be put on display taking 

account only of their visual appeal; this work will 

be performed by visual artists; 

– two other spaces will be added to the sales space, 

one for the purchase and consumption of “street 

food”, the other intended to host conferences/debates 

and shows; 

– take-away food will be the result of original recipes, 

designed and created in workshops with chefs invited 

from corresponding countries. 

A steering committee for the project will be organised 

around chefs working in the area implicated in the 

bid (Lionel Lévy, Christian Ernst, Arnaud Carton de 

Grammont, Reine Sammut or Jean-Luc Rabanel), 

the Conservatoire des Cuisines Méditerranéennes 

and the combined “Human Nutrition and Lipids” 

Research Unit based in the Timone Hospital. 

46 47 

1.3.E 

Other framework 

programmes of 

the bid from 2009 

to 2013 

In addition to the permanent and multi-disciplinary 

“Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” concept, and as 

well as the festivals, exhibitions and popular gatherings, 

some other programmes illustrate the themes 

selected for 2013 in a truly exemplary manner and 

will contribute to the structure of the Capital year 

calendar by enhancing its clarity and appeal.



Programme 10 

Sharing the Roma 

Memory – Deltas of Europe 

and the Mediterranean 

This project comprises two aspects: the first aims to 

ensure transmission of the Roma culture to younger 

generations throughout the area of the bid, while the 

second, complementary aspect extends the project so 

that it covers a Euro-Mediterranean context by examining 

of the culture of river deltas (the Rhône delta 

of course, but also, for example, the Nile, the Danube 

or the Guadalquivir). The whole project will be the 

fruit of collaboration between the Museon Arlaten, 

the Musée d’Ethnographie, the Les Suds Festival in 

Arles and different partners in Slovakia. 

Programme 11 

The Cantata 

of Neighbouring Shores 

Supported by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region 

and the Euro-Mediterranean Anna Lindh Foundation, 

this project brings together the Centre for Traditional 

Mediterranean Music, the Ensemble En Chordais 

from Salonica in Greece, the Timitar d’Agadir Festival 

in Morocco, the Centre for Arab and Mediterranean 

Music at Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia and the Cité de la 

Musique in Marseilles. The project will seek to develop 

compositions and original projects on the basis of 

programmes of residencies and tours involving both 

amateurs and professionals. 

48 

Programme 12 

Forbidden Music 

The Forbidden Music Festival is the result of cultural 

action carried out by the Association for the Austrian 

Cultural Forum within the Austrian Consulate- 

General in Marseilles. It enjoys a special partnership 

with the Austrian Cultural Forum in Paris and the 

Marseilles City Opera. Since 2004, this operation has 

rehabilitated major musical works forbidden by the 

3rd Reich. The Forbidden Music Festival has thus set 

itself the goal of making this action a long-term event 

and of extending it to the entire field of repressive 

totalitarianisms, including an important teaching and 

civic mission. Through its partnership with the Terezin 

Festival in the Czech Republic, Forbidden Music 2008 

has been selected by the European Commission in 

the framework of its “Active European Remembrance” 

initiative. 

On the basis of this network and of the dynamic that 

has been created around the themes raised by this 

project, Forbidden Music will continue to develop 

until 2013 and will produce a major festival on the 

occasion of the Capital year. 

Programme 13 

Traffic (Urban Culture) 

What cultural, aesthetic or social echoes will hip-hop, 

slam, rap, beat box, BMX or graffiti have by 2013? 

Obviously, nobody can predict how things will change 

or even if they’ll survive. 

Yet the socio-economic conditions that, for more than 

twenty years now, have made Marseilles the capital 

of a particular form of Rap - less centred on the special 

issues of the “banlieue” than Parisian Rap (which does 

not exist as such in Marseilles) - will certainly still be 

around. The pioneers of IAM, realising that passing 

the flame to a new generation was part of their mission, 

have managed to transmit the idea of a Rap that, 

though still highly politicised, conveys more universal 

messages; a Rap that exports better and lasts longer. 

Keny Arkana, for example, was eight years old when 

IAM released their first album. She created her first 

pieces when she was 13, before the sociologist Philippe 

Corcuff found similarities between her anti- 

globalisation texts and the neo-Zapataist language of 

Subcomandante Marcos in Mexico. 

In addition to this concern for transmission on the part 

of recognised, but continually evolving artists, Marseilles 

can also be proud of a certain number of other initiatives 

along the same lines, through the organisation of work 

shops in the inner city where Rap is an essential element, 

particularly for young women and girls. In this respect, 

the Jean-Claude Izzo and Edmond Rostand lower- 

secondary schools figure as pioneers in the subject. 



On this basis, we are prepared to bet on a future for 

these art forms and each year Marseilles will host 

“Traffic”, a new festival devoted to urban culture. 

Given the volatility of this music, it would hardly be 

prudent to imagine the details of a programme for 

2013 today. This is why, for the 2010 preview festivals, 

we are linking up with two important festivals 

to be held in two present and future European 

Capitals of Culture: the Hub Festival in Liverpool 

and the Melez Festival in Essen. 

These two events, which are very different from each 

other, present a fascinating complement to Marseilles’ 

own contribution in terms of music. While Liverpool 

develops the dimensions of sport and street culture 

with Skate, BMX and hip-hop dance “Battles”, Essen 

with Melez (meaning “mix” in Turkish) adopts a more 

sociological approach by looking closely at the issue 

of migration which feeds these inner-city cultures. 

In co-production with the well known model of Les 

Rencontres de La Villette in Paris, we will be developing 

the “Traffic” concept between 2010 and 2012 

to become an annual and enduring event from 2013 

onwards. 


Values and Beliefs 

Programme 23 

Marseille-Fes-Kosice 

Festival of Sacred Music 

The Marseilles Festival of Sacred Music will be developed 

as a long-term partnership of co-productions 

with the Festival of Fes in Morocco and the Kosice 

Festival in Slovakia. This dual collaboration will be 

an expression of Marseilles’ desire to act as a link 

between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. 

Musicatreize, one of the finest international musical 

ensembles in Marseilles, will participate in the next 

Kosice Festival at the end of 2008. 

A joint project with the Festival of Fes is in development 

for the 2010 event. 

Programme 24 

Performances in Tribute 

to Albert Camus 

Marseilles City Opera and the Grand Théâtre de 

Provence will join forces to commemorate the centenary 

of the birth of Albert Camus in 2013. A 

commission to a European composer based on one of 

Camus’ dramatic works is currently being developed 

by the Opera. 

A “Camus trilogy” will be performed in three major 

theatres in the area (Centre Dramatique National de 

la Criée, the Grand Théâtre de Provence, the Théâtre 

du Gymnase). 

Programme 25a 

The Mediterranean 

Cultural Forum 

The Mediterranean Cultural Forum is organised jointly 

by a mission of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

and local authorities and institutions (the City of 

Marseilles, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, 

the Bouches-du-Rhône Département and the Chamber 

of Commerce and Industry). It is supported by the 

Anna Lindh Foundation. The Forum represents an 

extension of the process of the Mediterranean Cultural 

Workshops initiated by France in 2005, which was 

concretised by three meetings in Paris (September 

2006), Seville (June 2007) and Alexandria 

(January 2008). 

49



The Mediterranean Cultural Forum runs 8 workshops 

and brings together 200 participants from societies 

in all Mediterranean and European countries. 

The 8 workshops are as follows: 

– history, memory, heritage; 

– images, audiovisual, cinema; 

– writing, translation, books, libraries, print media; 

– creators, artistic and cultural creation, circulation 

of artists and cultural products; 

– religion and society; 

– modernising societies; 

– knowledge economy: basic schooling, educational 

systems, professional training, universities; 

– values, identities, cultures. 

The leading figures in the workshops are historians, 

philosophers, artists, directors of cultural institutions 

and NGOs and representatives of international institutions 

active in the field of culture. 

The Forum will meet in Marseilles in November 2008. 

After that, it will be held every two years in Marseilles, 

alternating with a Mediterranean metropolis. 

50 


Genders or Genres 

Programme 28 

Six Films for a Great 

Cinematographic Project 

On the general theme of the place of women around 

the Mediterranean, we will address six subjects in the 

form of commissions awarded to film-makers: peace, 

work, violence, secrets, femininity, and no man’s land. 

The aim of the cinema project is to fictionalise and 

highlight, with strength and sensitivity, the current 

challenges facing women in the Mediterranean as well 

as contemporary figures of women, etc. We will adopt 

a special perspective on environmental issues and the 

sociocultural context, and their impact on human 

questions (with one instruction: to avoid all the clichés 

that are almost always associated with women’s issues). 

The underlying themes and the director’s treatment 

of the grey zones between fiction and documentary 

will be accorded special importance. 

Two producers, who are ready to commit to the implementation 

of the project, have joined forces with 

Marseille-Provence 2013 to determine the specifications, 

budget, financial partners and distribution of 

the project. 

Programme 29 

“Je est un(e) autre” 

From Pedro Almodovar to Olivier Py and Ron Athey, 

from the gallery of living sculpture in the glorious 

“Féminin/Masculin, le Sexe de l’Art” exhibition at 

the Centre Georges Pompidou, to the Queer Festival 

in Berlin, many artists and events have chosen to deal 

with gender issues through transvestism and 

transsexualism. 

These shows are based, above all, on individual artists, 

who rarely work jointly on one single project. 

We propose to offer commissions to European and 

Mediterranean artists for the creation of a show 

consisting of different acts, under the title “Je est un(e) 

autre.” Music hall, dance, song, theatre and stand-up 

will be the principal disciplines concerned. The show 

will be coordinated by a single director but the choice 

of artists will be made collectively, especially including 

certain curators of the “Genders, Genres and Minorities: 

Images and Representations of Women around 

the Mediterranean” exhibition. 

- 




The Sharing of Water 

In the context of programme 2 in this Theme, which 

aims to “develop the culture of water” through cultural 

events (cinema, live shows, music), Marseilles-Provence 

is teaming up with Berlin and Kosice to present a musical 

programme in 2013 and will promote the setting up of 

a film festival devoted to the theme of water. 

Programme 34a 

Water Music 

The first edition of the new Wassermusik Festival, 

which combines concerts and discussions around 

water, took place in Berlin in July 2008, under the 

aegis of Haus der Kulturen der Welt. With a notable 

concert on the Spree and with special themes devoted 

to seafarers’ music and song, film projections and 

debates, this festival has similarities with Music on 

Water planned for 2010 at Kosice in Slovakia. 

In 2013, Marseilles-Provence will present a musical 

programme devoted to this theme with these two 

partners, alongside the “The Sharing of Water” 

exhibition. 

Programme 34b 

When Water meets Cinema: 

A Festival 

As an extension of the work carried out since 2006 

in the context of the Rencontres Internationales Eau 

et Cinéma (International Conferences on Water and 

Cinema) associated with the World Water Forums 

(next forum in Istanbul in 2009), a “Mediterranean 

Water and Cinema” Festival will be organised in 

Marseilles in 2010. It will constitute one of the relay 

operations in preparation for the 3rd Rencontres 

Internationales Eau et Cinéma, which will be held 

alongside the 2012 World Water Forum. 


Art in the Public Arena 

Programme 38 

The “Digue du Large” 

A Great Artistic Commission at 

the Heart of the Future Capital 

From the gate of the Vieux Port as far as L’Estaque, 

this 7 kilometre long strip of concrete and boulders 

so close to the principal sites of the bid, is a unique 

installation in France. The Digue du Large (the 

Marseilles Sea Wall) is already an exceptional piece 

of work in itself, a piece of home-grown Land Art, 

half architecture and half sculpture. It represents 

an element of the identity of the city but, for different 

reasons, it is a forgotten area and is, in fact, currently 

inaccessible. The project consists, first and foremost, 

in opening up the wall for strolls and promenades. 

Offering exceptional vantage points, towards the 

port and the city on one side, towards the open sea 

on other, the wall will become an important space, 

capable of hosting large numbers of works. This is 

the second aim of the project: to set in motion from 

2010 a programme of commissions for long-term 

or short-term installations that will constitute the 

principal visible cultural brand of the Capital. As 

supports for these commissions, we will use not only 

the wall itself, but also boats that will be moored 

wherever the activity of the port will allow. 

51



Programme 39 

Mountains and Wonders 

In 2009, Marseille-Provence 2013 plans to launch a 

multi-annual programme of arts commissions for 

5 major sites across the area of Bouches-du-Rhône 

Departement: 

– La Saint Victoire – Roque Haute 

– La Sainte Baume – Saint Pons 

– Le Garlaban – Pichaury 

– Les Aulnes (Camargue) 

– Le Château d’Avignon (Camargue) 

Each year, until 2013, one of these five sites will be 

the subject of an enduring piece of creative work. 

Programme 40 

Exterior Daylight 

The duo N+N Corsino are well-known for having 

produced a number of monumental installations mainly 

involving video compositions. Thanks to a new technology 

of metal mesh sheeting, which can be fixed onto 

buildings or façades and which will be readily available 

by 2013, they are no longer content merely to project 

images onto screens, but are looking to cover vast 

surfaces with webbing comprised of fibre optics and 

LED video-transmitters. They will be able to install a 

gigantic outdoor screen that will wrap around the 

contours of buildings or any other structure. 

The 2013 project will consist in wrapping the ramparts 

of the Fort Saint Nicolas and producing huge pieces of 

52 

digital artwork that will be visible 24 hours a day, both 

from the sea and from the Vieux Port or the J4. 

N+N Corsino will produce the inaugural installation 

and will then organise master classes, pairing invited 

artists with schools of digital art. 

Following N+N Corsino, five other major European 

artists will be commissioned to produce works. Every 

two months, the inauguration of their work will be 

the occasion for a spectacular opening party on the 

J4 to music by Marsatac. The specifications given to 

these six artists will also include invitations to six 

European schools, with which they will organise 

master classes. These classes will also be an opportunity 

to train artists from Mediterranean countries that are 

still under-resourced in this area, with the notable 

exceptions of Beirut and Tel Aviv. The students’ work 

will be shown for a full month, in the same way as 

that of the artists. 

As examples of pairings, we could invite digital artists 

Olafur Eliasson or Ann Veronica Janssens and the 

Supinfocom (Arles) and ZKM (Germany) or Polytechnika 

(Gdansk) digital art schools. 

Ultimately, this installation could become a regular 

feature after 2013 or even tour the area (see, for 

example, the project of the City of Martigues on the 

Chenal de Caronte). 

Programme 41 

A European Artists’ Funfair 

Today, very many young European artists with roots 

in the theatre or the visual, digital or plastic arts are 

inventing small intimate installations that offer visitors 

special experiences. Renowned artists such as 

Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman or Rolf Kasteleiner 

have all developed work on the figure of the clown, 

deformity and the burlesque and have succeeded in 

creating a contemporary face for these archetypes. 

We are thus intending to set up a “contemporary 

funfair”, bringing together some fifteen commissions 

by artists chosen by 10 directors of European cultural 

institutions and festivals. Blind trails, a sound installation 

with 1,001 adaptations of the Marseillaise 

(national anthem), a sensorial tank, a dialogue around 

a two-way mirror, magic roundabouts… there is no 

shortage of ideas. A director and a set designer will 

define the space and the rules of the game in this 

“contemporary Coney Island”, with its costumed 

extras and treasure hunts. Our village of sideshows 

and rides will be on view 24 hours a day throughout 

the entire event, and will thus be seen by a very large 

number of people. In following years, it will return 

enriched with two additional sections, and may go 

on tour to major European cities. 



Programme 42 

Seas Online 

If a true Mediterranean identity, forged over millennia, 

really exists, it has been wrought in an eccentric 

manner around the rim of a vast blue desert. There is 

no human, historical or cultural centre to the Mediterranean 

Sea in the real world, which is why it is so 

difficult to bring its representatives together elsewhere 

than on one of its shores. The idea is therefore to 

invent this centre and to bring it to life in the virtual 

world, via the technology of broadband multimedia 

networks. Thus, the cultural Mediterranean can be 

centred simultaneously in Marseilles, Beirut, Tangier 

or Alexandria, but also, for a time, in Paris, Berlin, 

Montreal, Bratislava, Beijing or Sydney. This is the 

challenge of the project developed by Luc Martinez, 

a pioneer in the production of networked projects 

and himself a multimedia artist. 

This project proposes to recreate the Mediterranean 

rim thanks to the multimedia technologies of highspeed 

networks. This reconstitution will be produced 

initially on the scale of our region of the world, then 

extended from the Mediterranean to, say, the Black Sea 

and the Baltic, two other enclosed seas. 

Designed for a large audience, this audiovisual installation 

will become a crossroads of communication on 

the occasion of regular events in the arts, educational 

and scientific fields, etc. 

A Networked Multimedia Installation 

Marseilles will host a crown of 12 to 16 large, juxtaposed, 

back-projected screens surrounding a set of 

video projectors. These projectors will be connected 

to the historic ports of the Mediterranean rim by a 

high-speed geostationary satellite uplink. The visual 

link between all these video images will be obtained 

from one screen to the next by the continuity of the 

horizon line, captured in each port by a secure multimedia 

station. From time to time, these screens could 

relay other events before resuming their primary 

function of showing a permanent, circular 

landscape. 

The Mediterranean will be symbolically recreated by 

a coherent set of images and sounds, captured and 

transmitted in real time. In Marseilles, people will be 

able to stroll around the edge of the deep blue sea, 

looking at it and listening to it from any one of the 

12 countries online. It will show us the sea’s changing 

light and moods as the weather, the winds and the 

currents turn. 

A Symbolic Island in the Middle of the Mediterranean 

People would also be able to enter the circle of screens, 

and contemplate the sea from its centre. A décor 

recreating an imaginary island (sand, rocks, sea grass, 

driftwood, etc.) will surround the public while disguising 

the technology. This central position will be ideal 

for listening to a permanent musical creation that will 

float around the audience. 

This island – a real middle earth – will also serve as a 

stage for special events, concerts, conferences, TV 

broadcasts etc. Importantly, the screens will have no 

frames, inserting themselves into this uninterrupted 

landscape to resemble the grand panoramas of the 

19th century. 

This outstanding tool can be extended to cover other 

seas and oceans, and could be made available to many 

of the projects selected by Marseille-Provence 2013 

for the organisation of symposiums, conferences or 

other events in the scientific, educational, economic, 

environmental or social fields, etc. The main themes 

presented in Programmeme 1 of the bid project “Le 

Partage des Midis” would find their place naturally as 

part of this project. 

53

Seas Online (programme 42; see p. 53). “A spectacular networked, multimedia device that is accessible 24 hours a day. 

A symbolic Mediterranean island” – Image courtesy of Luc Martinez / Medialoft 

54 55



Programme 43 

The Euro-Mediterranean 

Honey Bank 

As a visual artist and urban bee-keeper, Olivier Darné 

has found in bees both a medium and a means of 

exploration that blends different areas of the language 

of contemporary creation. 

Combining his role as a creator of images with that 

of a bee-keeper in the urban public arena, he is working 

in the city in a new way today, by positioning his bees, 

his installations and his questions on the pavements, 

and by questioning the relation between wildlife and 

urban living, between the “cultural bio-diversity” of 

human beings and their surroundings. 

In residence in Marseilles with the Théâtre du Merlan 

in 2008 and 2009, Olivier Darné has installed a 

“Swarming Centre” on the roof of this urban institution 

in Northern Marseilles to act as a point of departure 

and homing for his residence in the city. A kind of 

sensitive mapping centre from where, over a two-year 

period, bees and questions will be set loose to see 

where they end up. 

His project is to develop a Euro-Mediterranean swarm; 

a honey bank located here that allows bees to land 

and support a bee-keeper and his hives in his “exploitation 

of the skies.” 

The artistic form of the project will be that of an urban 

pollinator installed in the public arena, telling his 

audience tales about the life of bees from elsewhere 

and about the honey that they produce. These per- 

56 

manent “other tastes” will be the subject of multiple 

workshops open to all and will seek to encourage a 

“taste for the other”. 

The project will be developed internationally in 

partnership with Terra Madre, a planetary project 

imagined by Slow Food with the goal of forming 

networks between food professionals centred on the 

formation of a new logic to redefine food and agriculture 

that is more respectful of humanity and the earth. 

The project will be developed over a four-year period; 

the following cities have been chosen to host a Honey 

Bank, essentially because of the interest and diversity 

of their ecosystems: Istanbul, Berlin, Barcelona, Luxembourg, 

Geneva, Turin, Belfast, Amsterdam, Tangier, 

Rotterdam, Jerusalem, Kiev and St. Petersburg. 

Programme 44 

Fleeting Gardens 

Between June and September 2009, the first edition of 

this festival organised by the City of Marseilles will see 

the creation of ephemeral gardens from 25 Mediterranean 

cities, installed all around the Vieux Port (from 

the gardens of the Pharo as far as the J4). The aim is to 

bring together gardens that express the nuances and 

complexity of the cultures that make up the Mediterranean 

rim. A call for participants and a specification 

will be addressed by the management of the Marseilles 

Parks and Gardens Department to Mediterranean 

countries through different channels (consulates, foreign 

relations, overseas cooperation, etc.). 

Programme 45 

Shopwindowing Art 

This is one of the flagship projects of Linz, the 2009 

European Capital of Culture. We will pick up the 

concept in collaboration with Linz ’09 and OK (Offenes 

Kulturhaus). 

Presented as a preview in 2008 under the original title 

“Schau Rausch”, the project was based on 50 commissions 

to 50 artists for 50 works of art in 50 shopwindow 

displays. 

The final result was an enormous success in the city, 

but it was, above all, the method of production that 

gave the project its full meaning and dimensions. First 

of all, in the choice of the artist/shop manager pairing, 

which led to a real dialogue on contemporary art, 

completed by proper professional training in contemporary 

art for the staff of the shops involved. Sales 

assistants were thus transformed into real mediators, 

which in turn led to a completely different relationship 

with the public. A full catalogue was published, including 

portraits of the shop staff along with texts 

written by them and accounts of how the shops were 

transformed. In the end, entire streets were taken over 

by the project, with certain window displays becoming 

live shows, while other more sculptural works spilled 

out onto the pavements. 

For Marseilles-Provence, in collaboration with “Marseille 

Centre” in particular – an association of Marseilles 

city-centre shopkeepers – and with the association 

of shopkeepers in the centre of Aix-en-Provence, 



a total of some 200 shops and boutiques will be involved. 

A certain number of the “Schau Rausch” installations 

in Linz will be entirely reused in order to retain 

continuity across European Capitals of Culture. 

Programme 46 

Architectures 

In Chapter 3 below, we present the major development 

projects involving new cultural facilities for 2013. These 

projects have been entrusted to internationally famous 

French and foreign architects. Three further projects 

are planned in addition to this remarkable effort: 

An architectural competition will be organised in 2009 

for the design of two models of fair structures to be 

installed across the entire area. The first group of 

structures should fulfil utility functions (ticket sales, 

public information booths, mobile offices, etc.); the 

second will be a temporary café designed to host public 

events, especially concerts. Both of these projects will 

specify energy self-sufficiency and require other environmental 

criteria to be met. 

An exhibition on the work of Le Corbusier is being 

developed in association with the Le Corbusier 

Foundation and the MoMA (Museum of Modern 

Art) in New York. We particularly appreciated the 

exhibition co-produced by Liverpool, Capital 2008 

in Lisbon. The MoMA is planning a new retrospective 

in 2012. Marseilles-Provence may partner this exhibition 

and could host it in 2013. 

With the “Images de Ville” festival in Aix-en-Provence, 

with the new Via Marseilles festival and with its 

partners – especially Metropolis in Copenhagen – a 

series of discussions and debates between architects, 

town planners and artists will be organised on the 

following theme: “How does art transform the public 

arena; how does the public arena transform art?” 

Programme 47 

1st International Biennial 

of Circus Arts 

In collaboration with the Centre National des Arts 

du Cirque in Châlons-en-Champagne (National Centre 

of Circus Arts) and the Young Circus Talents Europe 

programme, this event will explore the relationship 

between contemporary circus and the visual arts, design, 

theatre, music, dance and multimedia, without forgetting 

science or gastronomy. The project will be directed 

by the European Circus Arts Research Centre (CREAC) 

based in Marseilles in the spirit of international experimentation 

described in Report 1 (p. 99). 


Walkers – Nomads – 

Territories 

Programme 55a 

Trails for the Curious Wanderer 

The leading figures of the bid, in association with 

landscape artist Philippe Deliau, have organised a 

mission to identify sites around Marseilles-Provence 

that are redolent of ten characteristic themes of the 

area’s history and geography. The variety of forms 

creates the diversity of the sites: mountains plunging 

into water, thrusting massifs, narrow gorges, fertile 

valleys, chalky plateaux, rushing streams, rocky outcrops, 

hilltop pine groves, green oaks in the dales, etc. 

The occupation of sites by engineers, industrialists, 

the military and farmers has resulted in architectural 

structures adapted to the mountain slopes: homes cut 

into or built onto the bare rock, shacks backing onto 

the rock face itself, clifftop forts and hillside terraces. 

The nature of the soil, the maritime climate and forest 

fires have all combined to make up a system where 

adaptation to the environment is everything: desert 

or develop. Wild areas – 4,000 hectares along the Côte 

Bleue – contrast with the heavily built-up urban zone 

between Marseilles, Aubagne and Aix-en- 

Provence. The great Crau plain, the vast Camargue 

rice fields and the unending ponds of the salterns are 

the exceptions that prove the rule: where land can be 

used, it is exploited right up to the edge of the sea. 

57



The different themed trails translate this diversity of 

landscape, by associating elements of identity that 

testify to the past – “from soda to soap” – with aspects 

of modern life – “industrial façades”. Certain guided 

trails will lead the curious wanderer towards science 

and knowledge, discovering unexpected biodiversity 

in the cities, for example, or revealing unsuspected 

archaeological treasures. From this huge area on the 

edge of the sea – the sea and its islands could be classed 

as a territory alone – we have chosen the most astonishing 

sites, most of which are at this time inaccessible 

to the public. Many have undergone transformation 

because difficulties of operation and access have forced 

change upon them (The Friche La Belle de Mai is an 

emblematic example). The selected sites are often on 

high ground that used to be outside the city. Converted 

into belvederes looking out over the sea, they are sure 

to be visited by a curious public, especially in the 

context of specific workshops intended for families. 

Programme 55b 

Revelations 

On the 1st of every month at nightfall, this project 

will enable an audience to (re)discover a building 

used for industrial or scientific purposes (e.g. ITER). 

We will plot a trail leading to industrial or commercial 

buildings of architectural significance, often only 

glimpsed in passing, inaccessible, from the car, and 

whose activities are only known to the personnel, 

customers or suppliers. 

58 

These “Revelations” will be staged by Groupe F and 

other artists, especially musicians. Thanks to the skills 

of their employees, the businesses themselves will 

contribute not only to producing the show, but also 

to designing a narrative telling the story of the business 

and the products that it manufactures. 

On the occasion of the opening event, a major building 

with a large audience capacity will be chosen to 

inaugurate the cycle. Ultimately, each “Revelation” 

will be recorded by a photographer and a book giving 

an account of the twelve events will be published in 

time for Christmas 2013. 

Programme 55c 

Apparitions 

Mysteries and Snowballs 

Developed by the visual artists N+N Corsino from 

Marseilles, this project is based on a fascinating and 

rapidly developing technology that will be used to 

produce the event itself in 2013. The technique 

combines laser and hologram technologies in a 360° 

panorama to give the illusion that an object is enclosed 

in a glass bubble, just like the dome-shaped snowballs 

sold in souvenir shops. By 2013, this technology will 

have evolved in terms of the scale of its applications 

and will allow a series of holographic figures to be 

installed across the cities. 

Playing on new contemporary icons, these apparitions 

will be relayed live on Google Earth, where they will 

not only be very clearly visible, but where information 

on the objects to be found can also be obtained via 

GPS and mobile phones. The gaming aspect of the 

project will thus be based on combining a real and 

virtual trail. The project is developing constantly, and 

could be transformed into a real treasure hunt, involving 

imaginary narratives, or fictional legends, with 

the last apparition of the 2013 year being especially 

difficult to find and as well as being the key to all the 

other enigmas. 

Programme 56 

Joliette: Glass in Transit 

The Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre 

et les Arts Plastiques - CIRVA (International Centre 

for Research into Glass and the Visual Arts) is an 

original European institution. With Javier Perez (Spain), 

Giuseppe Penone (Italy), as well as Bill Woodrow 

(Great Britain) and Gilles Barbier (Marseilles), the 

CIRVA is already a Euro-Mediterranean workshop. 

Reaching out to wider audiences, including amateur 

enthusiasts, by setting up in one of the beacon communities 

on the edge of Euromed, the CIRVA will be 

re-energised as a test bed of contemporary creation 

and will reveal the exceptional collection that is has 

accumulated since 1986. 



Programme 57 

FRAC-Euro-Region 

In partnership with the Association Art’ccessible, the 

Provence Alpes-Côtes d’Azur Regional Contemporary 

Art Fund is developing a number of teaching programmes 

including the “Galerie Ambulante”, a mobile 

gallery in the form of a van loaded with works of art 

from its collection, which will travel out to meet the 

public, especially in villages. This project will become 

truly European and it will outline a new path in contemporary 

art with the implementation of two exhibitions 

presented in Caraglio and Marseilles: Italian curators 

will be invited to France and French curators to Italy. 

The curatorial project could be accompanied by a book 

to promote the institutions and artists based in this 

cross-border area. The project has been chosen to be 

a part of the European “Integrated Territorial Project” 

in the cross-border areas of the French Alpes de Haute- 

Provence and Bouches-du-Rhône Départements and 

the Province of Cuneo in Italy. 


One Thousand 

and One Nights 

Programme 59 

One Thousand and one artistic 

Nights (Call for projects) 

This programme is designed to liven up the night-life 

in public places in certain city centres in the bid area 

(artistic operations focusing on the decoration and 

cultural activities of historical cafés, coloured by 

the great traditions of Europe and the Mediterranean 

in particular). 

These aims were set out in the first bid Report 

(p. 157), where we announced that we would be 

launching a call for projects and preparing specifications. 

The specifications are summarised in the 

Appendix below. The selection criteria intersect 

with the themes of the bid. 


Everyone is Involved 

Programmeme 61 

New Commissioners 

In accordance with the principles set out in the first 

Report (p. 165) – to enable each individual, solely 

or in association with others, to take the initiative 

of commissioning a work of art in response to a 

defined specification – we have established, in this 

second phase of selection: 

– the text of the call for projects; 

– the form to be completed by participants; 

– the method of issuing the call, of selecting propositions 

and of putting them into production. 

These texts are shown in the Appendix. 

Experimentally, an initial series of commissions was 

launched in 2007, notably at the Jean Jaurès lowersecondary 

school in La Ciotat, for the Place François 

Moisson in Marseilles, for the Saint Joseph Hospital 

Foundation in Marseilles and for the Valvert Hospital 

in Marseilles. 

59



Programme 67 

Euro-Mediterranean Cooking 

In addition to the projects mentioned in Report 1 

(p. 131) and the major project “Central Market: Cooking 

Takes to the Stage” (see p. 47), a group of chefs 

who are particularly interested in the problems of the 

food industry and public health will organise Euro- 

Mediterranean Workshops in secondary-school 

canteens across the Region, as is already the case at the 

l’Empéri upper-secondary school in Salon-de-Provence. 

In addition, the Bonneveine Hotel and Catering College 

in Marseilles, which is part of the Association Européenne 

des Écoles d’Hôtellerie et de Tourisme - AEHT 

(European Association of Hotel and Catering Schools) 

is developing two projects with similar configurations: 

“Christmas in Europe” and “Europe”. 

Finally, the Piknik-Kit project developed by 

Stephan Muntaner will complete this range of events 

destined for the general public. 

60 

Other Programmes 

Programme 60 

“The Amateurs’ Night” 

Programme 62 

“Artistic Projects in Primary 

and Secondary Schools” 

Programme 63 

“Youth in Action” 

Programme 64 

“Beacon Communities” - Projects 

in Community Associations 

Programme 65 

“Everyone is a Researcher” 

Programme 66 

“Football-Calcio-Futbol- 

Kourat Qadam” 

Programme 68 

“What's Your Game?” 

Programme 69 

“Encounters and Symposiums” 

In order to start the work of encouraging public 

participation in the themes and events of the bid 

project, these projects have been launched as they 

are presented in the first Report without waiting for 

the final selection. The educational establishments, 

associations and projects that we have selected in 

2008 are presented in Chapter 4 below (“How is 

the project mobilising citizens? How are citizens 

participating in the development of the project?”) 

In addition to the projects outlined above, which structure each of 

the themes of the bid, the following three European programmes, 

which are transversal in nature in relation to these themes, are either 

ongoing or are due to start in 2008, and will continue to be developed 

through to 2013: 

Annual collaboration with Slovakia and production of a “Slovak Season” 

during the first quarter of 2013 (see Chap. 2 below and Appendix, 

programme 70). 

“Cities on the Edge”, a European programme initiated by Liverpool, 

European Capital of Culture in 2008; Marseilles will head up this network 

in 2009 (see Appendix, programme 71a). 

“SEAS”, extension to the Mediterranean and Marseilles of the European 

cooperation programme between the North Sea and the Black Sea through 

port cities (see Chap. 2 below and Appendix, programme 71b). 

61

Chapter 1 




1.4 

Work on the 

2013 calendar 

62

High 

Point 1 

Sharing the Roma 

Memory. Deltas 

of Europe and the 

Mediterranean 

SEASON 1 SEASON 2 

SEASON 3 

Traffic 

Babel Med 

International 

Biennial 


Albert Camus and La Pensée de Midi 

Via Marseilles 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” (Euromediterranean Workshops) 

Opening Event The Neighbours’ Party Water Courses 

Mobility and Migrations in Europe and the Mediterranean 

Sharing the Roma Memory 

Vessels, Navigation, Navigators 

Art Confronts Time 

Theatres of Pestilence 

The Slovak Season 

High 

Point 2 

Athens, Cordoba, Jerusalem 

Sharing the Mediterranean’s Sacred Places 

Sacred Music 

Festival 

Fid Lab 

EXISTING SUMMER FESTIVALS 

Festival of Marseilles 

International Photography Encounters in Arles 

Opera Festival in Aix 

Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron 

Five Continents Jazz Festival (Marseille) 

International Documentary Festival (Marseille) 

The “Digue du Large” - Mountains and Wonders - Exterior Daylight - Shopwindowing Art 

Seas Online 

One Thousand and One Nights 


Conferences and Debates 

The Sharing of Water 

Le partage des midis. Painters and the Mediterranean 

European 

Artists’ 

Funfair 

The 

“Savoir- 

Fairs” 

Participative Projects in Associations, Schools, Cultural Institutions, Businesses 

Marsatac 

Camus 

Anniversary 

Central Market 1 Central Market 2 Central Market 3 Central Market 4 

High 

Point 3 

A Breath of Fresh Air for Art: Twenty Places by the Sea - 

100 Guitars - Sonic Youth Commission - 

Mediterranean Youth Orchestra 

Pathways: Trails for the Curious Wanderer - Revelations - Apparitions 

63 

High 

Point 4 

Fashion 

Sails 

SEASON 4 

The 

Amateurs’ 

Night: 

Closing 

Event 

Genders, Genres and Minorities. Images and Representations 

of Women around the Mediterranean 

The Fiesta 

des Suds 

Festival 

InterMed 

Youth 

InterMed

The calendar of the 2013 year has been 

constructed over all four seasons. 

Each season is opened by a series of events 

that are coordinated to create strong natio- 

nal and international interest: 

– a popular and festive cultural event; 

– simultaneous opening of 2 or 

3 new exhibitions; 

– beginning of one or more major festivals. 

Seasonal opening events 

Exhibitions 

Other framework programmes 

Existing summer festivals 

64

Fashion Sails (programme 8; see pages 42/43). “The sails of windsurfs, kite surfs 

or old vessels redesigned by Haute-Couture designers for a regatta on the open sea” – Image c-ktre 

65

Sharing the Roma Memory: the Deltas of Europe and the Mediterranean (programme 10; see p. 48) – Photos courtesy of Olivier Dubuquoy 

66 67

The “Savoir-Fairs” (programme 37; see p. 44). “Light, fire, fireworks and papier mâché or cardboard sculptures will be 

the subjects of workshops for the production of a festive parade” – Photos courtesy of Fratelli Faniulo Illuminazioni, circa. 1946 

68 69

Exterior Daylight (programme 40; see p. 52). “A new technique combining metal mesh sheeting and LED video-transmitters used to create 

a gigantic screen that is visible in daylight. New technology made available to European and Mediterranean artists” – Image courtesy of N+N Corsino 

70 71

A Breath of Fresh Air for Art (programme 54; see p. 45). “A dual programme of travelling “Proms” 

(promenade concerts) and open-air film shows for the area’s principal sites” – Images courtesy of Félix Lefebvre 

72 73

Revelations (programme 55b; see p. 58). “Highlighting the area’s legendary industrial landscapes” – Photo courtesy of Jean-Claude Carbonne 

Apparitions. Mysteries and Snowballs (programme 55c; see p. 58). “A combination of laser and hologram technologies to give 

the illusion that an object is enclosed in a glass bubble, just like the dome-shaped snowballs sold in souvenir shops” – Image courtesy of N+N Corsino 

74 75

78 

84 

86 

96 

98 

2.1 

2.2 

2.3 

2.4 

2.5 

The project is in line with 

European and Mediterranean 

Union policy 

The project mobilises 

stakeholders and citizens 

around issues and partnerships 

in Europe and the Mediterranean 

The project develops Euro- 

Mediterranean partnerships and 

integrates existing exchange 

networks 

The high points, framework 

programmes and certain new 

facilities have a European and 

Mediterranean vocation and 

represent major long-term 

investments 

The European Agenda of 

Marseilles-Provence in 2008 

Chapter 2 

How does 

the project serve 

a Europe 

of Culture?

Chapter 2 

How does 


a Europe 

of Culture? 

2.1 

The project is in line 

with European 

and Mediterranean 

Union policy 

Chapter 2 How does the project serve 

a Europe of Culture? 

Three successive delegations composed of the executive directors of the bid, local business 

leaders, and elected officials and representatives from the bid area visited Brussels, where 

they met with members of the Commission and Parliament responsible for the cultural 

and Euro-Mediterranean policies of the European Union. Their aim was to gather infor- 

mation and seek guidance relative to the priorities and measures that have been decided 

upon for the 2007-2013 period. 

Members from the External Relations Directorate General have since visited Marseilles 

in order to present the policies and programmes to be implemented during this period. 

The Marseille-Provence 2013 project has been developed within the framework of these 

policies and measures. 

The concept of project, the five aims that this concept is designed to fulfil and the tangible 

productions that are already being implemented for its application are all designed to 

support long-term cooperation between the EU, the countries and the cultural stakeholders 

of the Mediterranean basin. The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” (Euro-Mediterranean 

Workshops) are being created progressively and in a sustainable manner from this year, 

2008. They will serve to support and unify all of the programmes of the bid (see Chap. 1 

78 79 

above).



2.1.A 

The project 

endorses the 

1995 Barcelona 

Process 

The third element of the Barcelona Process aims to 

bring people together through social, cultural and 

human partnerships that are intended to encourage 

understanding between cultures and exchanges 

between different types of civil society. One of the 

great novelties of this process is to consider culture as 

an essential pillar of Euro-Mediterranean 

cooperation. 

Organising events with cultural leaders and artists 

means supporting the emergence and the reinforcement 

of strong civil societies in Southern countries 

as the leaven for democracy, freedom of expression 

and secularism. Artistic communities are the driving 

forces of society. 

Promoting intercultural dialogue also means supporting 

the modernisation of cultural and social representations 

on either side of the Mediterranean and of the 

perception that societies have of themselves and of 

their neighbours. Questions of training and transmission 

are at the heart of this ambition. The Mediterranean 

is overflowing with ancestral artistic practices 

80 

that must be conserved and passed on, alongside 

fruitful contemporary creation that merely asks to be 

more widely distributed. 

In this regard, our counterparts in Brussels put the 

accent on three lessons learned from the first years of 

implementing the Barcelona Process: 

– As things stand, the European funds destined for 

this policy can only be awarded to individual local 

communities; this hampers collaborative initiatives 

between communities and reduces the number of 

projects that come to fruition (“many studies, few 

results” we were told). 

– The slowness and complexity of bilateral procedures 

have been rightly criticised and it would be desirable 

if the elected officials and representatives of metropolitan 

and municipal administrations took on a 

more important role in development, particularly 

in cultural development. The Liverpool conference 

on 1st-3rd May 2008 on “The Intercultural City” 

clearly identified the specific roles of local community 

bodies in the development of innovative projects 

and reproducible experiments with regard to the 

promotion and management of interculturalism (in 

“Making the Mixing Happen”). 

– The involvement of civil society in achieving the 

aims and implementing the projects must be encouraged 

1 more vigorously. 

1 These observations are specified in the recent communication of the 

Commission to the Parliament and to the Council (20/05/08) regarding 

the Barcelona Process: “Union for the Mediterranean” 

The Marseille-Provence 2013 project promotes: 

– intercultural dialogue; 

– support for civil societies by welcoming and transmitting 

the production of artists and creators in all 

disciplines; 

– direct cooperation between local communities in 

the bid area and their counterparts in Mediterranean 

countries or with their cultural institutions; 

– workshops organised according to the “cloistering” 

method, uniting figures from culture, science, community 

associations and industry. 

The project thus seeks to contribute to implementing 

the less developed aspects of Barcelona by mobilising 

significant long-term resources (200 to 250 European 

and Mediterranean creators welcomed each year in 

the framework of the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée”; 

enduring Euro-Mediterranean events such as the 

InterMed Festival and its InterMed Youth section, 

the Via Marseilles Festival, etc.). 



2.1.B 

The project 

is in line 

with the priorities 

of the EU’s 

“Culture 

Programme 

2007-2013” 

The very concept of the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

and its implementation through the themes 

in Strategy 1 “Le Partage des Midis” (Sharing the 

South): 

– “Migrations and Memories” 

– “Values and Beliefs” 

– “Genders or Genres” 

and the treatment of the themes in Strategy 2 “La 

Cité Radieuse” (The Radiant City), in association 

with the corresponding commissions awarded to 

European and Mediterranean artists, all respond to 

the triple aspiration of promoting North-South intercultural 

dialogue, the mobility of artists and the circulation 

of their work. 

2.1.C 

All respond to the triple aspiration 

of promoting North-South intercultural 

dialogue, promoting the mobility 

of artists and supporting the circulation 

of their work. 

The Project 

endorses certain 

specific European 

programmes and 

has attracted the 

necessary funding 

The presence of an office of the Commission and of 

the European Parliament in Marseilles has already 

enabled our funding arrangements for both structural 

and specific programmes to be studied. The search for 

partners for our projects was thus able to take this 

factor into account very early on in the process. 

In addition, stakeholders across the area are already 

heavily involved in a certain number of programmes. 

As an example, the area is leading the implementation 

of the “Youth 2000-2006” community action programme, 

extended by a decision of the European 

Parliament and Council in November 2006 to “Youth 

in Action 2007-2013.” 

In 2007, a score of partners from ten European countries 

and four Mediterranean countries met in Marseilles 

to prepare the ground for future collaboration 

in youth policy and strategy with regard to cultural 

facilities. It was decided that volunteers participating 

in exchanges between cultural institutions in the area 

would be welcomed and sent to other countries to 

work together. 

A team from Marseille-Provence 2013 took part in 

this seminar. 

In the second half of 2008, under the French Presidency 

of the EU, the group will meet in Marseilles in order 

to intensify activity and widen the partnership through 

a Euro-Mediterranean forum known as “the Cultural 

Volunteers Exchange.” 

On the basis of this experience, during the European 

Capital of Culture year, Marseille-Provence 2013 

will be looking to host up to a hundred young volunteers 

aged between eighteen and thirty from the 

Euro-Mediterranean space. These young volunteers 

will play an important part in the event. 

81

European “Youth in Action” Programme 

Some examples: 2007-2008 

In Marseilles, 50 young people from 8 countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, 

Portugal, Greece, Spain, Poland, Latvia and France) produced an exhibition 

to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in collaboration 

with the Association pour la Promotion et la Défense de l’Animation 

pour Tous. 

In Aix-en-Provence, for the “Roule Ma Poule” event organised by the 

Pistes Solidaires association, handicapped and non-handicapped young 

people from France, Italy, Slovenia, Estonia and Slovakia gathered with 

the aim of learning how to live together. 

In Aix-en-Provence again, the Summer Forum organised by the European 

Youth Parliament (PEJ-PACA) brought together nearly 200 young par- 

ticipants from all over Europe to debate the future of Europe. 

Exchanges between Vitrolles and Krakowice (Poland) organised by 

l’Association Européenne du Pays d’Aix et du Bassin Minier (European 

Association of Aix and the Mining Country): 20 young Poles (from 

Krakowice Catering College) visited Marseilles and the surrounding area 

for 15 days to find out more about their counterpart college (Vitrolles 

upper-secondary school). In exchange, young people from Vitrolles went 

to Poland for 10 days in April 2008. They visited the Krakowice region 

and dedicated a day to Auschwitz. 

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Love Difference, Mar Mediterraneo, 2003 - 2005. Entrusted to the Contemporary Art Museum in Marseilles 

by the National Contemporary Art Fund, Ministry of Culture and Communication, Paris – Photo courtesy of Vincent Ecochard 

82 83

Chapter 2 

How does 


a Europe 

of Culture? 

2.2 

The project mobilises 

stakeholders and citizens 

around issues and 

partnerships in Europe 

and the Mediterranean 



As outlined in Chapter 1 above and Chapter 4 below: 

Cultural institutions and events in the area 

are developing Euro-Mediterranean alliances 

in the run up to 2013 

Major annual events are planned, for example: for 

2008 and subsequent years, the Rencontres Internationales 

de la Photographie (International Photography 

Encounters) and the Les Suds Festival in Arles, 

the International Opera Festival in Aix-en-Provence, 

the International Piano Festival in La Roque d’Anthéron, 

the Festival of Marseilles, the Fiesta des Suds 

Festival and the Marsatac Festival in Marseilles have 

already programmed works, residencies, workshops, 

commissions and Euro-Mediterranean partnerships 

linked to the bid project. 

Opera houses, major theatres and museums are doing 

the same. 

Participative projects involving residents will develop 

Euro-Mediterranean themes and exchanges 

These projects are presented in Chapter 4 and in the 

Appendix. Some examples are given below: 

Major annual events are planned 

and have already programmed 

works, residencies, workshops, 

commissions and Euro-Mediterranean 

partnerships linked to the bid project. 

Class Eurock with Spain, Italy, Germany, Great 

Britain and the “Cities on the Edge” European 

network. 

ADDAP: young people helping to renovate a locale 

used by an association in Morocco. 

ARTECO: courses for amateur musicians from the 

Mediterranean rim (Italy, Lebanon and Tunisia). 

The Paths of Song: exchange residencies for young 

people from Salonica, Marseilles and Riga. 

Lieux Fictifs: film workshops in the prisons of Marseilles, 

Barcelona, Oslo, Wuppertal and Milan. 

The Théâtre de la Mer: exchange workshops around 

memories of immigration with Amsterdam, Tetouan 

and Marseilles. 

“Autobiographies”: creative writing workshops exchanging 

with schools from Hungary, Italy, Greece, 

Germany and Morocco. 

“Méditerranée” teaching workshops for upper- 

secondary school pupils (aged 15-18). 

“My School, My District, My Town”: exchanges 

and workshops organised with schools in Morocco. 

84 85

Chapter 2 

How does 


a Europe 

of Culture? 

2.3 

The project develops 

Euro-Mediterranean 

partnerships and 

integrates existing 

exchange networks 



As a result, the following developments have been 

added to the initial projects: 

Roma culture: the teaching and circulation of Roma 

culture in Slovakia proved to be richer than we had 

imagined. This is why we have developed, in the bid 

project, a travelling exhibition entitled “Roms” 

(Roma) produced by the Arlaten Ethnographic 

Museum in Arles in collaboration with different 

Slovakian national institutions and Slovakia’s four 

finalist cities. With them, a programme of multi- 

disciplinary events (music, dance, circus, cinema and 

literature) called “Sharing the Roma Memory - Deltas 

of Europe and the Mediterranean” has been included 

in the Marseille-Provence 2013 project. 

Shows and events in the public arena, one of the high 

points of the Marseilles project, aroused great interest in 

Slovakia. Three of the four Slovak cities in the running 

for the Capital title expressed a desire to host events from 

the Marseilles project as of 2008 and we have submitted 

four detailed propositions to them. 

Art linked to new technology: following the initiative 

of RIAM, an international network of alternative 

cultural locales (based in Marseilles) that focuses 

particularly on digital art, we discovered intense 

creativity in this field in Slovakia. RIAM is hosting 

a Slovak music/video group this year, and will invite 

a second group to its 2009 festival. Additionally, with 

RIAM we are negotiating Slovakian partnerships for 

the “Art and New Media” network project that we 

are submitting to the European Commission. 

Diffusing art and culture to children and teenagers: 

despite all of its problems, the old Communist regime 

in former Czechoslovakia had some positive features 

in this respect. That policy has not been affected by 

recent changes. Marseille-Provence 2013 will extend 

its InterMed Youth project, initially planned with 

Barcelona and Berlin, to a third partner in Slovakia 

(Bratislava and the selected candidate city). 

A specific programme, “Artistes Sans Mer” (Landlocked 

Artists), will be organised from 2010 to 2013, 

to offer Slovakian artists a “piece of coastline” within 

the area implicated in the bid in order to incite them 

to create works inspired by their vision of the sea. We 

have taken the idea of this project from Nice’s bid and 

members of the Nice team will be invited to put it into 

action. A wider collaboration on the theme of “Coastal 

Art” is also being studied with the City of Nice. 

86 87 

2.3.A 

With Slovakia 

The Marseilles multi-annual 2007-2013 programme 

of cooperation with Slovakia, presented in the preselection 

report, has been specified and modified to 

take account of new missions carried out in Slovakia’s 

candidate cities and of exchanges with their stakeholders 

(three visits in 2007, three in 2008). Themes 

linked to migration, memory, intercultural dialogue 

and art in the public arena, presented by Marseilles to 

our Slovakian counterparts were very well received.



Overview of artistic 

exchanges carried out 

with Slovakia in 2007 

The Francophone Colours of the Danube: linguistic 

and artistic collaboration between an upper-secondary 

school in the Slovakian capital and the Marseillesbased 

Orange Bleue cultural association, which built 

a boat on the Danube and undertook an extraordinary 

voyage with the students, taking in a number of cultural 

events (April-September). 

Invitation to the Slovakian group Longital within 

the framework of Mimi, the Marseilles Avant-Garde 

Music festival (July). 

88 

Encounter between professionals and representatives 

of European arts institutions organised by Lieux 

Publics – the National Centre for the Creation of Street 

Arts and IN SITU, a European network of artistic 

creation for the public arena. Three professionals were 

invited from Slovakia: Tatiana Masnikova (who is part 

of the Kosice 2013 team), the Managing Director of 

Actores, the City of Roznava Festival of Contemporary 

Theatre, Jozef Juhasz, Director of the Performances 

Festival in Nove Zamky and Ondrej Spisak, Director 

of the Teatro Tatro, who is taking part in the organisation 

of the International Festival of Theatre in Nitra – also 

in competition for the title of Capital (September). 

“L’Odyssée du Danube” (The Danube Odyssey): The 

Institut International du Théâtre Méditerranéen 

(International Institute of Mediterranean Theatre) 

and the Théâtre Toursky of Marseilles organised a 

cruise during which shows, concerts, theatre workshops 

and debates with artists were programmed in each 

stopover city. The hundred or so cultural figures and 

artists who joined the cruise were thus able to discover 

Giurgiu, Ruse, Turnu-Severin, Belgrade, Budapest, 

Bratislava and Vienna (September). 

Artistic exchanges 

carried out with Slovakia 

in 2008 

In Marseilles 

Programming of Longital: A new sound adventure 

for the musical group who returned to Marseilles to 

play at the Balthazar (17th April). 

V4: an exhibition designed by the former Slovakian 

Minister of Culture Ladislav Snopko that presents 

the administrative regions of four central European 

countries, all signatories of the Visegrad Agreement: 

Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. 

The exhibition is organised by the Marseilles Chamber 

of Commerce and Industry in the prestigious setting 

of the former Stock Exchange. It will be inaugurated 

in the presence of his Excellency the Ambassador of 

Slovakia, who will give a talk on the economy of his 

country (18th August-18th September). 

Conferences will accompany this exhibition: 

Regionalisation- the future of Europe and Slovakian 

cultural policy by Mr. Snopko. 

The visual arts behind the Iron Curtain and The current 

renaissance of sponsorship in Slovakia by Ms. Bartosova, 

former Director of the Slovak National Museum, 

currently responsible for the cultural fund at Slovakia’s 

most important investment corporation. 



“The Chairs”: The Slovak National Theatre will stage 

an exceptional production of this great classic by 

Eugène Ionesco at the Théâtre Toursky (French 

premiere on 21st October). 

Concert of classical and contemporary music from 

central Europe by the renowned Capella Istropolitana 

Orchestra of Bratislava. This concert will be given in 

a recently renovated Marseilles venue, the Station 

Alexandre Arts Centre (November). 

Three Slovakian views 

1. The young Slovak photographer Daniela Hanzelova 

will be coming to Marseilles in the framework of 

this photographic exhibition project (June). 

2. L’Homme effacé/Vymazany muz, a Franco-Slovak 

exhibition by French writer François Soulage and 

Slovak photographer Tereza Golasova. After the 

opening of this exhibition, Tereza Golasova will 

stay in Marseilles for a week to photograph the city. 

This work will be a second contribution to the 

“Three Slovakian Views” project (October- 

November). 

3. The internationally acclaimed photographer 

Tibor Huszar, who is very popular in Slovakia, 

will also be coming to Marseilles on a voyage of 

discovery. 

In 2009, their photographs will give three Slovakian 

views of Marseilles for audiences in Marseilles, Arles, 

Kosice and, probably, Paris (November). 

In Slovakia 

Appearances by the Marseilles-based company 

Migrateurs/Transatlantique at one or more theatres 

and dance and musical festivals in Nitra, Martin, 

Kosice and/or the Gag 0’08 Festival in Kremnica 

(August-September). 

The Musicatreize ensemble from Marseilles has been 

invited to the Festival of Sacred Music in Kosice with 

a programme comprised for the most part of works by 

20th century French composers. This will be a first in 

the context of this festival, which up to now has been 

dedicated to classical music (November). 

2.3.B 

With European 

and Mediterranean 

networks 

With the Cities on the Edge 

network (Liverpool – 

Marseilles – Naples – Istanbul – 

Gdansk – Bremen) 

Marseilles-Provence will contribute to all of the work of 

the Cities on the Edge network and to the projects that 

the network develops. Marseilles will be heading the 

network in 2009. Among these projects, Marseilles- 

Provence has chosen to lend particular support, from as 

early as this year, to those that are the closest to our own 

founding themes and especially to those that endorse the 

virtues of integration and outreach to excluded publics, 

or that affirm the concept of European citizenship and 

more active participation by young people and workers. 

The “On the Edge of Passion” project will lead to the 

making of a documentary film dealing with “l’afición” 

for football within families of supporters and with relations 

between supporters of rival clubs in the same city; in 

Liverpool between the Reds and the Blues or in Istanbul 

between Besiktas, Galatasaray or Fenerbahce. In addition, 

the making of this film will allow us to organise residential 

exchanges for supporters between clubs from different 

89



cities and to report on these exchanges. The première 

of this documentary by Thierry Aguila, a Marseilles-based 

film-maker, is scheduled for October 2008. 

Streetwaves – Music on the Edge consists of a series 

of musical springboard concerts held in the network 

cities that will conclude in Liverpool. Springboard 

rock concerts have been organised locally by Class 

Eurock in all of the upper-secondary schools in the 

region of Marseilles-Provence. The last five French 

groups in the competition will be welcomed in Liverpool 

in the same way as the German or Italian groups. 

The winning French group will appear at the Matthew 

Street Festival in Liverpool in August 2008. 

“On the Seafront, Culture, Heritage and Regeneration 

in Historic Port Cities” Marseilles-based 

architect René Borruey will attend a conference 

organised by Liverpool. 

Coming and Going, deals with the transnational mobility 

of artists and will confront the issue of movement 

in the face of urban development. In this perspective, 

Radio Grenouille, a major community radio in the 

Marseilles-Provence area, visited Liverpool to take part 

in a residence with Radio Merseyside and Metal, the 

organisers of the contemporary art biennial festival. 

Street Philosophy and Urban Storytelling is a publication 

about the “new users” of cities. Starting from the 

idea that one category of city-dwellers, the “urban 

90 

practitioners”, contributes to building fundamental links 

in the city, whether they be taxi drivers, prostitutes, 

couriers or the homeless, we will look at how their activities 

produce today’s true urban myths and legends. 

Reberth. Local writers like Sonia Chiambretto, 

Stéphanie James and Nora Mekmouche express their 

offbeat views, both lucid and poetic, of their city and 

its residents. Ultimately their work will build into an 

urban anthology around the cities of the network. 

In Liverpool, the English photographer John Davies 

is leading a photojournalism project for which he 

has selected a number of different photographers. In 

Marseilles, he selected Philippe Conti. The project 

may be extended to other cities with other 

photographers. 

Teleport will act as a virtual space and communication 

tool for the Cities on the Edge network, putting the 

network cities in contact with each other and enabling 

windows to be opened at regular intervals between 

the cities to retransmit, show and exchange ideas. 

This project is an opportunity to combine even the 

most modest and popular arts projects with cuttingedge 

technologies. Experiments in simultaneous retransmission 

based on high-speed technologies will 

be set up between the cities in the network. They will 

use free software and be organised with the help of 

local research laboratories and technical universities 

working in association with the artists. 

With the SEAS network 

Initiated in 2002 by Intercult (Sweden), SEAS was set 

up with six other partners: Arts Council-East Midlands 

(Great Britain), the City of Tromso (Norvège), the 

Sfumato Theatre (Bulgaria), KIT (Denmark) and 

Utrecht Cultural Program (Netherlands). 

SEAS is interested in ports as places of circulation, 

migration and history, as expressed by the younger 

generations of artists. Between 2002 and 2005, SEAS 

set up a connection between the Baltic and Adriatic 

Seas. Since 2006, they have widened their horizons 

to include the North Sea and the Black Sea, a project 

for which they have received the support of the European 

Commission for the 2007-2010 period. 

The various meetings held with the directors of the 

network show their desire to integrate the Mediterranean 

Sea into their work. Thus, in 2010, in the 

context of Istanbul, European Capital of Culture, 

Marseilles may host SEAS events and develop, by 

2013, an extension of the project that includes the 

Mediterranean. 



With the IN SITU network 

Since 2003, IN SITU has been the benchmark European 

network for street arts and new forms of artistic 

creation in the public arena. Coordinated by Lieux 

Publics – the National Centre for Creation of Street 

Art in Marseilles – it has the support of the European 

Commission and brings together a score of major 

festivals or institutions in 10 European countries. 

The project is articulated around several complementary 

elements: 

The Hot Houses, creative writing seminars and 

workshops (20 sessions per year). 

Events produced jointly by combined teams (3 projects 

per year). 

A fund dedicated to residencies, translation and 

foreign adaptations (15 projects per year). 

A mobility fund for European artists and works 

(20 shows and over 200 presentations per year). 

A deliberate policy in favour of artists and cultural 

structures from new Europen countries. 

An annual meeting between the entire network and 

European institutional figures. 

A web revue in 4 languages, “ViaEuropa.eu”. 

In 2007 and 2008, Marseille-Provence 2013 has 

provided support for the activities of the network, 

which will be involved in the Via Marseilles Festival, 

one of the beacon projects of the bid. 

With the International College 

of Literary Translators (CITL) 

Created in Arles 10 years ago thanks to the initiative 

of the “Actes Sud” publishing house, this European 

college of translators has progressively built a network 

whose activities have become essential to intercultural 

dialogue. A programme specific to the European 

Capital of Culture project will be devoted to the 

development of these activities in collaboration with 

network partners. 

Translation is an essential condition of dialogue 

between cultures and it was recognised as a priority 

during the meeting between Euro-Mediterranean 

Culture Ministers in Athens. The exemplary action 

of the Arles International College of Translators will 

be developed in the perspective of 2013. A 2010-2013 

programme will be proposed to European agencies 

(with the Anna Lindh Foundation and the European 

Cultural Foundation) in liaison with the “Mediterranean 

Cultural Forums”, IEMed – the European 

Institute of the Mediterranean (national translation 

programmes run by the partner states of the Barcelona 

Process) and the King Abdul Aziz Foundation 

(Morocco). 

With the Mediterranean Basin 

Dance Network (DBM) 

DBM, based in Lisbon, defines itself as an independent 

association, whose aim is to “revitalise the development 

of contemporary dance and dramatic arts in the 

Mediterranean.” 

In Beirut, in November 2007 and in collaboration 

with Maqamat Theatre Dance and the Anna Lindh 

Foundation, DBM organised an event around different 

themes, with a particular focus on “the development 

and opportunities for contemporary dance in the Middle- 

East and civil, social and artistic involvement.” In this 

context, DBM may join different workshops and 

festival projects, such as DANCEM Festival in Marseilles, 

in order to feed into its new project: the 

“Mediterranean Dance Map.” 

91



With SIWA 

After two editions in Paris (Théâtre de la Cité Internationale 

and Théâtre National de l’Odéon), the 

SIWA Meetings are coming to Marseilles. As a field 

of reflection on modes of creation and representation 

among contemporary artists in the Arab world, the 

event will be based on permanent workshops that will 

give expression to artists for whom creation is often 

an act of resistance. 

With Meeting Points 

and the Young 

Arab Theater Fund (YATF) 

The Young Arab Theater Fund will be a vital partner 

of the Capital by virtue of its active participation in 

the Meeting Points Festival project. 

Programmed for its fifth edition in 2007/2008 by 

Frie Lyesen, the former Director of the Kunsten Arts 

Festival in Brussels, the Meeting Points Festival, which 

has been staged in nine Arab cities, enjoyed great 

success when certain projects were presented in 

Brussels and Berlin. Marseille-Provence 2013 will be 

one of the upcoming Mediterranean partners of the 

festival. 

92 

With the Baltic-Mediterranean 

Workshop 

The first Baltic-Mediterranean Workshop took place 

on 11th June 2008 in Marseilles. It brought together 

experts and research scientists from two regions that, 

though distant, are comparable in terms of their organisation 

around closed seas. 

Its aim: to encourage initiatives that promote the 

sharing of knowledge and the exchange of good 

practices in terms of the development of work that 

will allow civil society to grow in these two “extremities 

of Europe.” Fishing resources, the environment and 

innovation networks were on the agenda of this 

meeting, which was organised under the auspices of 

the Finnish season in France (100% Finland). The 

work of the Baltic-Mediterranean Workshops will 

continue in 2009, on the theme of water, in Turku, 

the Finnish city that will be European Capital of 

Culture 2011. The meeting in Marseilles in 2010 will 

examine the relationships between science, technologies 

and cultures. 

2.3.C 

With the cities 

of Europe 

In addition to the European partners involved in the 

projects presented in Chapter 1 and in the Appendix, 

specific partnerships have also been launched with a 

number of European cities. It’s worth remembering 

that between 2000 and 2006, 112 projects were undertaken 

by 83 cultural operators based in Marseilles- 

Provence, in partnership with European institutions. 

This characteristic of Marseilles’ cultural life will be 

amplified by the bid project, in particular through the 

following programmes: 



With Liverpool (UK), European Capital of Culture 

2008, within the framework of the multi-annual 

programme “Cities on the Edge”. 

With Copenhagen (Denmark), candidate for the title 

of European Capital of Culture 2017, within the 

framework of the “Via Marseilles” festival. 

With Stockholm (Sweden) and the Intercult Agency, 

within the framework of the SEAS programme. 

With Genoa (Italy) and the Festival of Science, which 

has developed a very wide network. Marseilles-Provence 

is already involved in the coming 2008 edition. 

With Barcelona (Spain) and its Festival de la Merce 

in which the Fiesta des Suds Festival is now involved, 

as is the Mercat de Les Flors / National Dance Centre 

with whom we will co-produce a part of the Traffic 

event. 

With Istanbul (Turkey) and the Istanbul Foundation 

for Culture and Arts for the Futebol project (see first 

report p. 175 and programme 66 in Appendix). 

Berlin (Germany) with projects co-developed with 

Haus der Kulturen der Welt and partnerships with 

InterMed Youth (FEZ and Volksbühne). 

Essen (Germany) with the Melez Festival, a close 

partner of the Traffic event. 

With Ghent (Belgium) for youth projects. 

With Linz (Austria) for the “Shopwindowing Art” 

project. 

Finally, within the framework of the “Athens, Cordoba 

and Jerusalem” programme, which goes into preparation 

in 2008, Marseilles-Provence will be teaming 

up with various cultural institutions in Greece. 

2.3.D 

With cities 

and stakeholders 

on the Southern 

and Eastern 

shores of the 

Mediterranean 

Fès with the Festival of Sacred World Music and the 

associated Rencontres de Fès. 

Tangier and its Cinema Library, one of the more interesting 

artistic venues in the city. The Cinema 

Library stages a large number of events and also organises 

schemes for artistic discovery intended for the 

younger residents of Tangier. It will be a major partner 

of InterMed Youth. 

The artists Yto Barrada and Bouchra Khalili who run 

the Cinema Library will also be associated with the 

programming of InterMed. 

Tunis is a great cultural city. Many organisations such 

as the Journées Théâtrales de Carthage, El Teatro, 

the Rencontres Chorégraphiques of Carthage will be 

associated with the InterMed project. 

93



Special attention will be given to young artists who 

are developing new approaches to the public, as in 

“Unclassified” proposed by Sofiane and Selma Ouissi, 

in the context of Meeting Points 2007. 

Cairo today has a very dynamic arts community. 

Cultural spaces such as the Townhouse Gallery, the 

Contemporary Image Collective (CiC), the Emad 

Eddin Studio and Makan area are major centres for 

meeting and communicating about the arts in Cairo 

today. They will be important partners of the InterMed 

and Meeting Points projects. 

Several Egyptian artists have already agreed to be 

associated with Marseille-Provence 2013. Among 

them are the visual artist Amal Kenawy, from whom 

we have commissioned a specific work, and the video 

artist Hassan Khan who designs protean arts projects 

adapted to the urban space that should find their place 

naturally in Via Marseilles. 

Semat, an independent film production company in 

Egypt is already partnered with Aflam (distributor of 

Arab films) and the CMCA (Mediterranean Centre 

for Audiovisual Communication) in Marseilles through 

the Caravan of Eurocinema project, which is supported 

by the European Commission as part of the Euromed 

Audiovisual 2 Programme (2006-2008). This project 

will fit in well with Marseille-Provence 2013. 

94 

With Alexandria, two projects are under development. 

The first is a project in the public arena for Via Marseilles. 

The other is being developed in partnership with the 

ACAF association (Alexandria Contemporary Arts 

Forum), a new contemporary art gallery in Alexandria. 

With Tel-Aviv, the Center for Contemporary Art, the 

DigitalArtLab, the Dvir Gallery and the International 

Exposure Festival are important spaces for creativity 

in Tel-Aviv, especially in respect of new artistic forms, 

video and multimedia. These organisations will be 

important partners of the City 2.0 project (see p. 32). 

With Jerusalem, we are developing a project of musical 

creation in the city with composer Eran Sachs, in the 

context of Via Marseilles. 

Beirut is one of the most important cultural cities in 

the Arab world, and a number of partnerships have 

been developed with the city in the run up to Marseille- 

Provence 2013. 

Using the same approach as the exhibition produced 

from the Al Madina photographic archive in the city 

of Saïda, a project is under way with the Arab Image 

Foundation and the artist Akram Zaatari. It involves 

organising, as part of the Via Marseilles project, an 

exhibition of portraits collected from across the Arab 

world since the start of the 20th century. The resulting 

exhibition will be put on in public spaces across the 

City of Marseilles. 

The Ashkal Alwan association, a Lebanese foundation 

for the visual arts, and the Maqamat dance company 

will be key partners in the organisation of professional 

training projects and young artists’ centres in the 

framework of the InterMed Festival and Meeting 

Points. 

The Beirut Art Center (BAC), a new space for 

contemporary art that will open its doors at the end 

of 2008, and the Zico House are future partners for 

the setting up of artists’ residencies. 

A project is under development with the Shams artists’ 

collective, which runs “Le Tournesol” theatre in an 

outlying district of Beirut at the crossroads of the 

Shi’ite, Sunnite and Christian communities. The 

Shams artists organise a number of cultural events 

with an inter-community dimension intended for the 

young people of the district. They will be important 

partners of the InterMed and Meeting Points 

projects. 

Damascus is the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture. The 

team that is organising this Capital year has succeeded 

in emphasising an alternative vision of culture and has 

put together a very solid programme that emphasises 

the (re)discovery of Damascus’ cultural heritage through 

a number of works specifically commissioned for the 

event. Some of these “Damascus 2008” productions 

will be hosted in Marseilles in 2009 and 2010. 

ISLANDE 

PORTUGAL 

European Capital 

of Culture 

2007-2013 

Main cities 

partners with 

Marseilles-Provence 

IRLAND 

Guimarães 2012 

Tangier 

UNITED KINGDOM 

SPAIN 

MOROCCO 

Fes 

Liverpool 2008 

Ghent 

Algiers 

ALGERIA 

NORWAY 

DENMARK 

Copenhagen 

NETHERLANDS 

Stavanger 2008 

Essen 2010 

Tunis 

Genoa 

TUNISIA 

SWEDEN 

Stockholm 

ITALY 

CROATIA 

Naples 

MALTA 

Gdansk 

POLAND 

BOSNIA 

FINLAND 

Turku 

2011 

SERBIA 

MACEDONIA 

ALBANIA 

GREECE 

Helsinki 

ESTONIA 

LATVIA 

LITHUANIA 

Tallin 2011 

Vilnius 2009 

BYELORUSSIA 

Brussels 

BELGIUM 

GERMANY CZECH REP. 

UKRAINE 

Luxembourg 2007 

SLOVAKIA 

Linz 2009 2013 

FRANCE 

2013 

SWISS 

AUSTRIA 

Maribor 2012 

SLOVENIA 

MOLDAVIA 

HUNGARY 

ROMANIA 

Pécs 2010 

Sibiu 2007 

Barcelona 


Provence 

Bremen 

Map indicating our Euro-Mediterranean partnerships. 

Berlin 

BULGARIA 

LYBIA EGYPT 

TURKEY 

RUSSIA 

Istanbul 2010 

CYPRUS 

Jerusalem 

Alexandria 

Cairo 

SYRIA 

LEBANON 

Beirut 

Damascus 

Tel-Aviv 

ISRAEL 

95

Chapter 2 

How does 


a Europe 

of Culture? 

2.4 

The high points, 

framework programmes 

and certain new facilities 

have a European and 

Mediterranean vocation 

and represent major 

long-term investments 



The construction of the MuCEM (Museum of 

European and Mediterranean Civilisations) and of 

the CRM (Regional Mediterranean Centre) (see 

p. 106 and p. 107) represents a combined investment 

of nearly €200 million. 

In the framework of the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée”, 

– the two new annual festivals created in Marseilles: 

InterMed – the international platform for the “Ateliers 

of l’Euroméditerranée” – and Via Marseilles – the 

European encounter between art and the city; 

– the 11 exhibitions programmed according to the 

four themes of Strategy 1: “Le Partage des Midis”; 

– the great popular events that usher in each season, 

especially “The Neighbours’ Party” and “the ‘Savoir- 

Fairs’ “, which highlight the blending and dialogue 

of cultures; 

all respond to objectives, investigate issues, involve 

artists and are built with European and Mediterranean 

partnerships. 

This is also the case with other framework programmes 

of the themes in Strategy 1 and Strategy 2, among which 

we can mention the following events as examples: 

Programme 8 

Fashion Sails 

Programme 9 

Central Market: Cooking takes 

to the Stage 

Programme 10 

Sharing the Roma Memory. 

Deltas of Europe and the 

Mediterranean 

Programme 13 

Traffic 

Programme 23 

The Festival of Sacred Music 

Programme 38 


Programme 39 


Programme 40 

Exterior Daylight 

Programme 41 


Programme 42 

Seas Online 

Programme 45 

Shopwindowing Art 

Programme 47 

1st International Biennial 


Programme 70 

Slovak Season 

and Landlocked Artists 

These major European events together comprise 

the heart of the project.They are the subject of 

committed partnerships. Certain will endure beyond 

2013 and will make a sustainable contribution to 

the long-term aims of European cultural policy. 

96 97

Chapter 2 

How does 


a Europe 

of Culture? 

2.5 

The European agenda 

of Marseilles-Provence 

in 2008 



98 99 

2.5.A 

General Agenda 

31st January Inauguration of Euroregion’s head office in Brussels 

25th-27th March Simulation of a UN plenary assembly with students from 5 European regions on the theme: the environment in the Mediterranean 

15th-16th May Spring event for secondary schools and apprentices in Martigues (3,000 young people from the Mediterranean Basin) in the presence of Madame Wallström 

11th June “Baltic-Mediterranean Workshops” organised in Marseilles by the Consulate of Finland 

12th June “Cultural Mobility in Europe and the Mediterranean” debate (ADCEI - Association for European and International Cultural Development) 

23rd-24th June Forum of local and regional authorities 

(Mediterranean Commission of the CGLU – Cités et Gouvernements Locaux Unis – United Local Cities and Governments) 

2nd July Meeting of EU Trade Ministers 

4th-7th July Forum of partners of the “Youth in Action” programme 

9th-11th July 50th anniversary of the Marseilles – Hamburg twinning 

11th-12th July European debates on intercultural dialogue at the Festivals of Aix-en-Provence and Avignon 

Autumn 2008 Forum of the The Roberto Cimetta Fund on the mobility of artists in the Mediterranean 

3rd-5th October Symposium by Marseilles-Espérance on the theme: “Youth: Dialogue and Fraternity” 

23rd-25th October 16th General Assembly and Annual Conference of the European Forum for Art and Heritage (EFAH) in Marseilles 

November Installation of a “European media-desk” in Marseilles 

2nd-3rd November EU Foreign Ministers Meeting 

4th-6th November The Mediterranean Cultural Forum 

14th-15th November The Rencontres d’Averroès 

17th-22nd November Mediterranean Week



2.5.B 

European cultural 

projects initiated 

or supported by 

the bid as preview 

events of the 

European Capital 

of Culture in 2008 

100 

Symposium on religions in the context of the Europe 

and Mediterranean Celebration day, (8th May). 

Programming in Marseilles of a Finnish group in the 

The Paths of Song Festival (June). 

Baltic – Mediterranean Workshop co-organised in 

Marseilles with the Consulate of Finland and the 

CNRS (11th June). 

actOral.7: accent on new English and Italian authors 

for the 7th actOral festival of contemporary writing 

(29th September-11th October). 

Festival of Science in Genoa: secondment of three 

research scientists from Marseille-Provence 2013 

(23rd October-4th November). 

The Golden Age of Arab Science: exhibition at the 

Paris Institut du Monde Arabe (end of 2008-beginning 

of 2009). 

Le Préau: co-production of Jean-Michel Bruyère’s 

next show with Linz, Berlin, Anvers and Avignon. 



2.5.C 

Cultural projects 

initiated 

or supported 

by the bid in 2008 

as part of the 

European cultural 

season during the 

French Presidency 

of the EU 

The following are examples of the 15 projects that 

will be produced in this context: 

LIBERTÉ! Libertés The entire history of opera is 

marked by the aspiration for freedom. The Aix-en- 

Provence Opera Festival and its educational service 

have brought more than 600 children together for an 

eclectic concert that will explore the work of the great 

musicians of yesterday and today, as well as the compositions 

of Fabrizio Cassol (27th June / Aix-en- 

Provence International Opera Festival). 

The International Documentary Festival A programme 

of European documentary films. Awarding of a Special 

European Prize (2nd-7th July). 

Forbidden Music This is the first stage of a project that 

will be rolled out in the run up to 2013. The Marseilles 

Philharmonic Orchestra will perform this “Music 

Forbidden by the 3rd Reich” in the framework of a 

European project associating Marseilles, Prague, Terezin 

and Bucharest (4th-5th July / Marseilles City Opera). 

Design Parade 03 As an international festival of 

contemporary design, Design Parade looks to identify 

future European talents by means of a competition. 

Theme-based conferences will be organised to enable 

professionals in the field to unite (4th-6th July / exhibitions 

until 21st September / Villa Noailles, Hyères). 

The International Photography Encounters in Arles 

One of the exhibitions will draw a portrait of contemporary 

creation over the last twenty years in the 

27 countries of Europe. A European night is programmed 

for 9th July (8th July-14th September). 

The Marsatac Festival The10th Marsatac festival 

will showcase new European musical scenes with an 

exceptional programme from Central and Eastern 

Europe (25th-27th September / Marseilles). 

Small is Beautiful / IN SITU Network A festival of 

“small format” street theatre presented by European 

companies and selected by the programmers of the 

IN SITU European network (24th-26th October / Lieux 

Publics / Marseilles). 

Van Gogh – Monticelli Among the exhibitions in the 

official season devoted to European artists and artistic 

movements, Marseilles plans to mount an important 

exhibition that will set the works of Van Gogh in 

relation to those of Monticelli (12th September 2008- 

11th January 2009 / Vieille Charité Centre). 

Daniel Barenboïm and the West-Eastern Divan 

Orchestra. As part of the European youth encounters, 

which take intercultural dialogue as their theme and 

which bring young people together from 49 different 

countries, Daniel Barenboïm has agreed to open the 

event with an exceptional concert given by young 

people for young people (8th July / Pharo / Marseilles). 

101

104 

116 

118 

122 

3.1 

3.2 

3.3 

3.4 

The project is part of an overall 

development and regeneration 

strategy for Marseilles-Provence 

The bid is a territorial cultural 

project 

The project creates lasting 

pieces of work 

The project is building 

sustainable cultural activities 

Chapter 3 

What lasting changes 

will the project bring 

about for Marseilles- 

Provence? 

How is it preparing 

for the post-2013 

period?

Chapter 3 

What lasting changes will 

the project bring about 

for Marseilles-Provence? 

How is it preparing for 

the post-2013 period? 

3.1 

The project is part 

of an overall development 

and redevelopment 

strategy for Marseilles- 

Provence 

104 

Chapter 3 : What lasting changes 

will the project bring about for 

Marseilles-Provence? How is it 

preparing for the post-2013 period? 

Marseilles-Provence is changing. By 2013, the area 

will have been significantly transformed. The works 

of world-famous architects (Massimiliano Fuksas, 

Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Rudy Ricciotti, Stefano 

Boeri, Yves Lion, Patrick Bouchain, Kengo Kuma and 

Frank Gehry / Edwin Chan) will stand out against its 

landscape. 

Its economy, districts, infrastructure and public 

buildings have been undergoing important changes 

for the past decade. We described these changes in 

the first chapter of the pre-selection project. 

A new phase has been initiated by the recent adoption 

of the Schéma de Cohérence Territoriale 

(SCOT) for the period 2008-2016. This plan defines 

the development strategy for the metropolitan area 

and its policy directives in various sectors. 

The Schéma directeur pour la culture 2002-2012 

(Outline Plan for Culture, 2002-2012) and the 

European Capital of Culture 2013 Project are included 

among them as conditions for enhancing 

economic growth, influence and attractiveness 

throughout the area. In keeping with the Lisbon 

Agreements, SCOT emphasises “an economy based 

on knowledge, innovation and creativity” and seeks 

to “further the area’s Euro-Mediterranean role.” 

The Ateliers de la Euroméditerranée (Euro-Mediterranean 

Workshops) – the bid’s unifying concept 

and project – reflect this double vocation and represent 

the heart of its cultural foundations. 

This urban renewal policy provides 

the framework for the construction 

of new cultural facilities for 2013. 

The growth of tourism is one of SCOT’s priorities, 

especially with regard to cultural tourism. The bid 

will promote this growth by setting objectives in terms 

of visitor numbers, by developing hospitality and 

accommodation facilities in connection with the 

2008-2013 Tourism Development Plan, which was 

recently implemented (see Chap. 5 below), and by 

creating a series of cultural events for the general 

public (popular events, international festivals, exhibitions, 

etc.). 

The extension of major urban renewal projects is 

also one of SCOT’s priorities. This notably includes: 

– Extending the scope of the Euro-Mediterranean 

development project, which began in 1995 on an 

initial 310 hectares and will be completed in 2012. 

– The continuation of the Grand Projet de Ville - GPV 

(Key City Project) in the surrounding districts. 

– Commitments to a new phase of construction work 

for the “Urban Transit Plan” (extension of underground 

lines, creation of tram lines, tunnels to replace 

overpasses, implementation of the L1 ring 

road, etc.) 

This urban renewal policy provides the framework for 

the construction of new cultural facilities for 2013. 

105





3.1.A 

The Cité de la 

Méditerranée 

Between the Old Port and the Arenc, this major 

programme is fundamentally transforming the city 

and its port facade into a single, unique hub reflecting 

Marseilles’ role as a major metropolis at the crossroads 

of cultural and economic exchanges between Europe 

and the Mediterranean. 

106 

Development has been entrusted to town planner 

Yves Lion and consists of three newly created areas: 

– The Saint-Jean esplanade, where major cultural 

facilities will be located: the Museum of European 

and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM) and 

the Regional Mediterranean Centre. 

– A vast commercial and entertainment block destined 

for transit passengers or tourists is planned for the 

Terrasses du Port area located across from the Quai 

de la Joliette and the refurbished docks. The new 

FRAC and J1 Hangar will also be built or developed 

within this same district. 

– The Arenc zone is a new district featuring housing, 

the Silo and departmental archives, as well as towers 

designed by Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel, and a 

cinema complex developed by Massimiliano Fuksas. 

These constructions will reflect the modernity, quality 

and international vocation of this new area. 

A unique cultural centre is thus beginning to bloom 

at the very heart of the city. It will encompass all 

artistic fields. 

Five major buildings, located within less than 6 km 2 , 

will open their doors in 2013. In figures, this represents 

nearly 57,000 m² and a total investment of 

€230 millions. These five buildings are: 

The MuCEM (Museum of European 

and Mediterranean Civilisations) 

On 14th January 2008, the Prime Minister confirmed 

that Marseilles would host the new Museum of European 

and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM) and 

that it would open before the end of 2012. 

The Minister of Culture appointed Stéphane Martin, 

president of the Musée du Quai Branly, to come up 

with proposals by July 2008 for implementing the 

following missions: 

– Affirm the future establishment’s multi-disciplinary 

artistic nature, 

– Develop its international standing and partnerships 

with major museums in the Mediterranean area, 

– Develop activities for the widest-possible public, 

– Seek out innovation in terms of both cultural 

outreach and the use of modern creation and information 

technology, 

– Promote complementarity among exhibitions, live 

performances, lectures and conferences. 

Designed by Rudy Ricciotti, the MuCEM is located 

at the J4 port and at the Fort Saint-Jean and will 

incorporate a new 15,000 m² building, bringing the 

total surface area to 26,000 m². 

At the crossroads between the historic Old Port and 

the new Euro-Mediterranean Joliette district, France’s 

second largest city has chosen to create this interdisciplinary 

centre to reflect its commitment to developing 

its international influence and to bringing 

cultural events to the heart of the city. 





The CRM (Regional 

Mediterranean Centre) 

The Regional Mediterranean Centre (or CRM) will be 

a convivial, multidisciplinary space of over 10,000 m² 

that will be opening its doors in 2011. A true architectural 

feat signed Stefano Boeri, it features a sunken 

base and is set to be one of the flagship centres for the 

Euro-Mediterranean project’s cultural activities. Its 

activity will be punctuated by frequent and numerous 

exchanges between the two shores, its chief aim being 

to strengthen ties between the different populations 

currently living around the Mediterranean. 

Events will systematically incorporate an international 

element and will focus on creation linked to current 

affairs throughout the Mediterranean: architecture, 

water, contemporary art, transport, trade, etc. 

The Silo 

Within the same port area near the Arenc docks, the 

converted grain elevator (the Silo) will house a concert 

hall for classical music containing 2,200 seats; it will 

also host the first Opera season during its forthcoming 

renovation. Built in 1927, it was considered to be one 

of the largest and most modern structures in the world 

at the time and has been officially recognised as part 

of France’s 20th Century Industrial Heritage. 

The experience of previous 

European Capitals has demonstrated 

the importance of designating a key, 

dynamic meeting point that has been 

strongly influenced by contemporary 

creativity and that hosts exhibitions, 

welcomes artists, provides the public 

with information and hosts popular 

gatherings, as the Tri Postal did 

in Lille during 2004. 

The “J1” 

From the very outset, the bid team identified the J1 

site as one of the main focal points for future events 

during the Capital of Culture year. The Marseilles 

Independent Port Authority will allow the city to use 

part of this area in 2013. 

The J1 is located in the centre of the new urban and port 

development area that extends along the seafront boulevard 

from the Arenc Silo to the J4 esplanade. Connected 

to the station by a sheltered footpath, the J1 site is 

the perfect interface between the city and the port. 

The choice of this area as a central space for the Capital 

of Culture year will boost both the Port Authority’s 

plans to renovate the site as well as the image of the 

event itself. The experience of previous European 

Capitals has demonstrated the importance of designating 

a key, dynamic meeting point that has been 

strongly influenced by contemporary creativity and 

that hosts exhibitions, welcomes artists, provides the 

public with information and hosts popular gatherings, 

as the Tri Postal did in Lille during 2004. 

The decision to anchor the project in the most emblematic 

part of the city, the port, is reinforced by its 

role as an international gateway. Boats will dock on 

both sides of the building. 

107

Development plan for the J1 site (see p. 107). “A location central to the Capital project, made available by the Marseilles Independent Port Authority” – Image courtesy of Stéphane Gruneisen 

108 109

“The current configuration of the J1 site” – Photo courtesy of Marina Agostini “Development plan for the J1 site” – Image courtesy of Stéphane Gruneisen 

110 111





The FRAC 

(Regional Contemporary Art Fund) 

A new 5,000 m² facility will be built by the architect 

Kengo Kuma to house the Regional Contemporary 

Art Fund of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur (FRAC 

PACA) by 2011. This facility will enable the FRAC 

to successfully carry out its regional, national and 

international missions. 

For over two decades, the FRAC has been prospecting 

and providing support for budding creations. This 

work has resulted in a collection that represents the 

major trends in contemporary creation on an international 

level. 

With this new facility, the FRAC is set to become a 

driving force behind diffusion, awareness and support 

for contemporary creation. It plans to act as a testing 

ground open to all cultures, developing crossover 

projects with resident artists, architects, writers or 

philosophers, or even performing artists thanks to its 

in-house theatre with seating for 250 people. It plans 

to encourage the mobility of its collections, land redevelopment 

via regional partnerships and crossborder 

projects. 

112 

3.1.B 

Aix-en-Provence 

Cultural Cluster 

The Grand Cultural Forum of Aix 

A cultural forum combining conservation, training, 

creation and diffusion facilities was created in the centre 

of Aix-en-Provence in the renovated Sextius Mirabeau 

district. This is the sole project of its kind in the 

region. 

Facilities include the Cité du Livre or City of Books, 

whose Méjanes library (housed in a former match 

factory) welcomes more than one million visitors a 

year and benefits from the Albert Camus fund; a 

technical training college for jobs related to books; 

the Pavillon Noir; inaugurated in October 2006 

to house the Centre Choréographique National 

d’Angelin Preljocaj; and the recently opened Grand 

Theatre of Provence, designed by Vittorio Gregotti, 

which welcomes all forms of performing arts, including 

part of the International Opera Festival. 

Creation of a Digital Arts Centre 

The City of Aix-en-Provence and the Pays d'Aix 

district council have decided to inaugurate the Aixen-Provence 

Art School on the site of the Vasarely 

Foundation and to create a centre dedicated to artistic 

forms that are linked to new types of technology. 





3.1.C 

The Regeneration 

of industrial 

Wasteland 

SNCF Workshops and the 

International Centre 

of Photography and Imagery 

The former railway workshops located in the Arles city 

centre are a unique place for photographic arts. Major 

renovations are currently underway and a large hall 

designed specifically for the Rencontres Inter-nationales 

de la Photographie (International Photography 

Encounters) has now been completed. They are also 

associated with an academic centre of excellence that 

includes the National School of Photography, a technical 

college and the SupInfoCom School. The Luma Foundation 

is heading up the project to create an International 

Centre of Photography and Imagery in Arles. A genuine 

centre for images with architecture signed by Frank 

Gehry and Edwin Chan, the Centre will be a site devoted 

to exhibitions, conservation and creation in the field of 

photography and digital arts. Additional improvements 

are planned for the site, including an area for regrouping 

musical activities (a conservatory and a concert hall for 

contemporary music), offices for the publisher Actes 

Sud, the creation of a cinema complex as well as the 

development of hotel accommodation. 

The Friche La Belle de Mai 

Arts Centre 

The projects undertaken at the Friche La Belle de 

Mai Arts Centre have significantly contributed to the 

way in which the public are embracing artistic practices. 

They have also promoted the region’s cultural 

development and broken new ground in artistic 

expression. 

Looking at performance arts alone, more than 5 hectares 

and 120,000 m² of creative space have been hosting 

performances ranging from the most traditional to 

the most innovative for nearly 20 years. A “network 

of professions” was created by developing a series of 

different activities linked to training, design, production 

and diffusion in the fields of cultural heritage, 

audiovisual, visual arts and performing arts. 

After several years of working with an association of 

cultural leaders and experimenting with the site’s 

transformation, a Société Coopérative d’Intérêt 

Collectif (SCIC) was created in 2007 by residents of 

the city of Marseilles and other local communities. 

Architect Patrick Bouchain was appointed Chairman. 

Patrick, speaking about the project’s basic philosophy 

and its contribution to a new phase of redevelopment, 

remarked that “…if we want to do things differently, we 

have to stop programming, controlling and allocating 

everything beforehand. This means adopting different ways 

of listening to the demand and a different solution, as well 

as a return to simple tools that anyone can use, whether 

you’re an elected official, an architect, a builder or a user. 

We have to let go of power and comfort in return for the 

sensual pleasures of nature and our raison d’être, and in 

return for freedom.” 

Cultural figures have thus become active in their own 

development and in the redevelopment of 45,000 m² 

in the heart of the city over the next 45 years. They 

have collectively drafted a document that describes 

their role as they see it from now until 2013. 

The SCIC will be able to grant lasting usage rights 

for activities that have their own business models 

(housing, shops, cinemas, etc.) and/or collective 

functions (nursery, sports for adolescents, etc.). This 

new era will mark a turning point in this site’s social 

and cultural development policy – the construction 

of public housing in the centre of the zone is one of 

the project’s major elements. 

As an important centre for resident artists, the Friche 

La Belle de Mai Arts Centre and its major cultural 

entities (Theatre Massalia, Système Friche Théâtre, 

etc.) have developed two major collective projects 

for a future European Capital of Culture: 

The Lieu Déconfortant (Discomforting Place) is a 

new physical and virtual space dedicated to the 

intersection of artistic writing and emerging forms 

related to modern technology for expression and 

diffusion. It will be founded by major participants in 

the arts centre: Grenouille-Euphonia, Zinc, Cabaret 

Aléatorie and Medicine Show, the platform of the 

artist Erik M. “Non-disciplinary” forms and nonacademic 

aesthetics will find a privileged stage here, 

113





open to the public for long periods throughout the 

day. In addition, the Lieu Déconfortant will include 

a structure for life-long education (L’Auto-École, or 

Auto-School) that associates the University with 

the founders on issues raised by New Information 

and Communication Technologies, online radio, 

peer-to-peer music, blogs, etc. 

The Lieu Déconfortant will also host Zanzibar, a 

testing ground for ideas that will bring together artists, 

researchers and business leaders around a platform for 

the arts, technology, science and innovation. 

The Contemporary Art Cartel 

The first resident artists settled in as early as 1993 and 

began their work in the field of contemporary art: 

Astérides, Triangle France, Le Dernier Cri, Documents 

d’artists and [S]extant et plus, each with their own 

particularities and all contributing to the diversity of 

the Friche La Belle de Mai Arts Centre. These structures 

regroup the expertise needed to support and 

diffuse contemporary creation in a single location. 

The five organisations will create a new 3,000 m² space 

where exhibitions, workshops and residencies can 

intermingle. This space will complement that of the 

FRAC and form a production and presentation centre 

for contemporary creation in the very centre of Marseilles, 

something that was lacking given the suburban 

location of the Museum of Contemporary Art. 

114 

By 2013, we will have the largest 

European site dedicated to urban 

writing and a privileged space for 

the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée.” 

The Street Arts Academy 

Several years ago, the City of Marseilles, along with 

the State and local governments, launched a major 

experimental project dedicated to artistic writing in 

public spaces. 

It involves a 3 hectare tract of land located in the 

northern part of Marseilles, which boasts 11,000 m² of 

infrastructure, and is associated with two national 

institutions that are currently developing European 

actions: Lieux Publics, Centre National des Arts de la 

Rue (National Centre for Street Arts) and pilot of the 

European network IN SITU, and Formation Avancée 

et Itinérante pour les Arts de la Rue or Advanced and 

Itinerant Training for Street Arts (FAIAR). 

It will also host a renowned theatre company, Générik 

Vapeur, a workshop, Sud Side, diffusion and outreach 

structures. The foundation work in progress should also 

open up space for several smaller companies and structures 

dedicated to contemporary circus acts, and define 

a simplified modus operandi for national structures. 

The Academy will open in 2011 and be ready by 2013 

to support all of the public-space projects: Via Marseilles, 

1001 Nights and the Neighbours’ Party. 

With its 21 rooms, spaces reserved for circus tents or 

caravans, workshops and rehearsal areas, it will be a 

permanent place of residence for companies and 

invited European artists. By 2013, we will have the 

largest European site dedicated to urban writing 

and a privileged space for the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée.” 

The Centre for Dance in residency 

In 2010, a brand new facility managed by choreographer 

Michel Kelemenis will open its doors in a 

former industrial zone in the northern suburbs of 

Marseilles. Composed of three studios that can also 

receive the public, it will act as Marseilles’ stand-alone 

facility for educational activities, residencies and 

performance programming, particularly in the context 

of the new InterMed festival. 





3.1.D 

Places of Memory 

The Camp des Milles 

The history surrounding the Camp des Milles is 

exemplary in that it illustrates the mechanisms of 

exclusion and the difficulties inherent to memory. It 

reflects the various stages of intolerance and persecution 

from the internments in 1939 to the deportations 

in August/September of 1942. Several European artists 

and intellectuals were incarcerated there. 

The site is unique in France because the building is 

very well conserved, as are the paintings left by imprisoned 

artists. It was also registered as a historical 

monument on 23rd February 2004. 

A large-scale redevelopment plan, including a 

15,000 m² building that will be completed in 2010 

and a 6 hectare park, is underway. 

The “Camp des Milles Remembrance Project” has 

plans to open the historically solemn internment 

building to the public and fit out the site for pedagogical 

activities. 

The history surrounding the Camp 

des Milles is exemplary in that 

it illustrates the mechanisms 

of exclusion and the difficulties 

inherent to memory. 

The Grand Saint Jean 

Since 1999, the International Opera Festival has been 

regularly staging operas at the Grand Saint Jean site, 

just west of Aix-en-Provence. This site still shows 

signs of human occupation dating back two thousand 

years and is one of the festival-goer’s favourite places. 

It adds a unique natural aspect to the festival’s identity. 

Attendance has also increased thanks to lower performance 

prices. 

However, the continued use of this site will require 

suitable infrastructure. Architect Patrick Bouchain 

has thus designed a wooden structure that offers a 

magnificent view of this countryside location. Light 

but durable, it can accommodate 1,500 spectators and 

covers the stage, technical equipment and the orchestra 

pit. It will be an environmentally friendly construction, 

in harmony with the site’s characteristics. 

Besides the festival, this site will host activities promoted 

by other cultural organisers: classical concerts, 

rock concerts, world music, dance, theatre, equestrian 

performances and more. It will also be an ideal location 

for the circus, which could temporarily set up 

traditional circus tents on the lawn in front of the 

building. 

The exceptional quality of this site and its facilities 

will make it one of the major Euro-Mediterranean 

Workshops for 2013. 

The Grand Longchamp 

This palace dates back to the second empire and marks 

the arrival of the Canal de Provence. It is an important 

part of the city’s history and its water supply. It is now 

an exceptional cultural hub with two museums, a jazz 

festival, scientific activities linked to the observatory 

and the IMéRA (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced 

Research). 

Museums 

The 3,000 m² overall extension of the Museum of 

Fine Arts and the Museum of Natural History will be 

completed in 2010. 

IMéRA (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced 

Research) 

Work on housing the institute in a 3,000 m² building 

located within a 2 hectare park began in 2008 and 

will be completed by 2010. The IMéRA is an association 

that regroups three universities from Aix and 

Marseilles, as well as the CNRS. One of its main 

purposes is to host highly qualified visiting professors 

and researchers from around the world for periods 

ranging from 3 months to 1 year. 

115

Chapter 3 






3.2 

The bid is a regional 

cultural project 

116 





The geographical area corresponds to both the cultural 

activities on offer and the public’s cultural habits and 

expectations. 

It is also in line with the ambition to promote cohesion 

among different local authorities via the project 

for 2013, and thus help transform the area into a 

genuinely European metropolis. 

With help from the Bouches-du-Rhône Département 

and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, projects 

have been developed around the bid’s 8 chosen themes 

and will be carried out throughout the entire area. 

Seven urban districts have worked on these themes. 

Flagship institutions and events located in these 

communities have also worked on them. 

This will ensure that all of the proposals are consistent with 

the objectives and priorities laid out in the bid’s themes. 

Moreover, the project for 2013 has focused on implementing 

a cultural policy that fosters art and event 

mobility, their multiplication in all of the cities involved 

and outreach into rural areas. Event planning, 

the way events are produced and specific grants to 

support their diffusion will promote both mobility 

and outreach. This is one of today’s major, national 

challenges when formulating public policy related to 

cultural development. 

The project for 2013 has focused 

on implementing a cultural policy 

that fosters art and event mobility, 

their multiplication in all of the cities 

involved and outreach into rural areas. 

We refer in particular to the 2nd theme of Strategy 2: 

“Walkers – Nomads – Territories” and its specific 

programmes: 

– Trails for Curious Wanderer 

– A Breath of Fresh Air for Art 

– Nomadic Artists and Works 

117

Chapter 3 






3.3 

The project 

creates lasting 

pieces of work 

118





While the public accepts urban sculptures, architecture, 

and even disastrous urban planning without 

much resistance, publicly commissioned works of art 

have to survive their inauguration. This is a collective 

responsibility that requires attention before, during 

and long afterwards. If we look closely at commissioned 

works for former European Cultural Capitals, it becomes 

evident that very few works have made lasting 

impressions in the collective memory, if not in the 

public space itself. There is a significant gap between 

the power of rhetoric and the reality of the cultural 

heritage left behind. This is not a recent phenomenon: 

take, for example, the exhibition of 1937 that resulted 

in more than 900 commissioned works, with little left 

to show for it. More specifically in Marseilles, works 

that have been commissioned in recent years are both 

few and far between and rarely convincing, when they 

don’t end up representing the failure of an ever-risky 

procedure (see the destruction of Richard Baquié’s 

work). We have therefore remained extremely prudent 

with regard to this chapter of the bid. 

Five commissioning programmes 

whose works, in whole or in part, 

are designed to be permanent. 

In the first phase, we worked with a panel of experts 

and assessed the experiences of various European 

Capitals of Culture and a number of exemplary achievements 

in France and abroad. During the second 

phase, we invited various international experts to 

Marseilles, including Laurent Le Bon, curator at 

the National Museum of Modern Art, to examine 

commissioned works at major sites in Marseilles, 

François Hers, director of the Hartung Foundation, 

for the “New Commissioners” project and the directors 

of festivals in Antwerp, Casablanca and Ljubljana for 

the Via Marseilles project. 

After these assessments, we defined a series of five 

commissioning programmes whose works, in whole 

or in part, are designed to be permanent. 

119 

Programme 38 


This major artistic project, located in the heart of the 

future Capital, puts one of its most emblematic sites 

in the spotlight. The idea is to reopen The “Digue du 

Large” (Sea Wall) to the public while using it to display 

works and stage events that will reinforce the city’s 

identity – one of quality and modernity that meets 

the challenges of tomorrow head on. The artistic 

decisions for commissioned works will be taken jointly 

by the Marseille-Provence 2013 Association, Laurent 

Le Bon, curator at the National Museum of Modern 

Art, and architect Patrick Bouchain. 

Programme 39 


Starting in 2009, a permanent piece of visual art will 

be commissioned every year at one of five sites throughout 

the Bouches-du-Rhône Département: Sainte- 

Victoire/Roque Haute, Sainte Baume/Saint Pons, 

Garlaban/Pichaury and Camargue (with Les Aulnes 

and the castle of Avignon). This yearly commission 

may include several works by several artists.

The “Digue du Large” (programme 38; see pages 51 and opposite). “One of the most symbolic sites when it comes to Marseilles identity, re-opened to the public for the Capital year and used to support contemporary activities and pieces of work” – Image courtesy of Laurent Garbit, sketch © Patrick Bouchain 

120 121

Programme 41 


We are intending to set up a “contemporary funfair”, 

bringing together some fifteen commissions by artists 

chosen by 10 directors of European cultural institutions 

and festivals. Our village of sideshows and rides will 

be on view 24 hours a day throughout the entire event, 

and will thus be seen by a very large number of people. 

In following years, it will return enriched with two 

additional sections, and may go on tour to major 

European cities. 

Programme 59 

One Thousand and One Artistic 

Nights (Call for projects) 

This programme’s objectives are described in the 

pre-selection report. They aim to revive city centres 

by commissioning artists to decorate public spaces 

and by programming frequent cultural events during 

the evenings, at historic cafés in particular. The 

European dimension of these events has been stressed. 

By nature, these projects are ephemeral but intended 

to create a sustainable, vibrant nightlife in town 

centres and to culturally re-qualify the most emblematic 

public places. 

Programme 61 


Presented in the pre-selection report, this programme 

aims to open up to the general public the possibility 

of commissioning a work of art under certain specific 

conditions. This invitation to citizens is ready and 

will be launched in 2009. The selection method has 

been defined and the mediators for selected works have 

been appointed. Most of the resulting pieces encompass 

every artistic discipline and are intended to last, especially 

those directly destined for public spaces 

(hospitals, schools, city squares, gardens, etc.). Both the 

sustainability of these works (though always uncertain 

and ever-threatened) and the new modes of creation, 

economy and cultural democracy will ensure that this 

programme leaves a lasting impression throughout 

the area and will continued beyond 2013. 

Chapter 3 






3.4 

The project is building 

sustainable cultural 

activities 

122





Once installed and having developed gradually from 

2008 to 2013, the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

will continue their activities beyond 2013. This central 

aspect of the bid federates all of the cultural and 

economic figures around Marseilles-Provence’s international 

vocation and Europe’s political objectives 

linked to this vocation (the Barcelona Process). They 

reflect the city’s sustained and tangible efforts to 

welcome, transmit, produce and exchange in such a 

way that fosters the implementation of this process. 

By the nature of its ambition, this will take many years 

to accomplish. 

Three of the popular events created to mark the 

changing seasons during the Capital year have been 

designed to be replicated annually, thus creating 

benchmarks for the area’s cultural life, both locally 

and internationally: the “Neighbours’ Party”, “Water 

Courses” and “The Amateurs’ Night”. 

Two new festivals have been created to illustrate the 

bid’s two strategies and create original, internationally 

acclaimed artistic events in Marseilles. Too few of 

these events currently exist for the city to be able to 

compete with the attractiveness and influence of other 

major European cities. 

– InterMed and its InterMed Youth section, a showcase 

for contemporary Euro-Mediterranean creations 

and exchanges, 

– Via Marseilles, a European gathering for arts and 

the city. 

Once installed and having developed 

gradually from 2008 to 2013, 

the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

will continue their activities 

beyond 2013. 

In addition to these two benchmark festivals, there 

will also be the Biennale Internationale des Arts du 

Cirque – International Biennial of Circus Arts, 

the new Festival of Sacred Music, Traffic (Urban 

Culture) events and Central Market: Cooking Takes 

to the Stage. 

Finally, the themed routes put in place throughout 

the area will offer a new tourist and cultural heritage 

that will remain long after 2013. 

Two facts should be highlighted in the conclusion 

of this chapter: 

1. The area’s major cultural works that have been 

initiated in connection with the bid, or those initiated 

before it but whose development will ultimately 

determine the bid’s success, are part of a development 

strategy formulated and approved by all concerned 

public entities (SCOT). This strategy explicitly 

focuses on culture as a necessary condition and 

component for developing an economy based on 

knowledge, innovation and creation. 

2. On 1st January 2014, in addition to the changed 

physical and cultural landscape caused by these 

projects, the cultural events which were designed 

for 2013 will continue to occur in Marseilles- 

Provence: the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée”, 

the new festivals and the new cultural gatherings 

for the public at large. 

123

“The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations”. Architect: Rudy Riciotti (see p. 106) – © Rudy Riciotti, architect 

“The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations” – © Rudy Riciotti, architect 

“The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations” – © Euro-Mediterranean / Courtesy of the studios of Lion Architects and Urban Planners 

124 125

“Regional Mediterranean Centre”. Architect: Stefano Boeri (see p. 107) – © DR 

126 127

“The Street Arts Academy” (see p. 114) – Architectural perspective and design: IRL Architecture / 3D image courtesy of Guillaume Paturel 

The “Cité de la Méditerranée” (see p. 106) – © Euro-Mediterranean 

“The Silo” (see p. 106) – © Euro-Mediterranean 

The Major esplanade – © Euro-Mediterranean 

The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Contemporary Art Fund (FRAC). Architect: Kengo Kuma (see p. 112) – Photo courtesy of Cyrille Thomas 

Dance centre for dancers in residence (see p. 114) 

Image courtesy of the architect Beccaria 

Euromed Center / Cinema complex. Architect: Massimiliano Fuksas (see p. 106) – © Euro-Mediterranean 

128 129

Model of the development plan for the Grand Saint Jean site (Aix-en-Provence). Architect: Patrick Bouchain (see p. 115) – © Construire The Friche La Belle de Mai Arts Centre. Architects: Poitevin and Reynaud (see p. 113) – Image courtesy of ARM Architecture 

130 131

The SNCF Workshops and the International Centre of Photography and Imagery (Arles). Architects: Frank Gehry / Edwin Chan (see p. 113) – © DR 

132 133

136 

138 

144 

148 

152 

158 

4.1 

4.2 

4.3 

4.4 

4.5 

4.6 

Implementing the strategy for 

mobilising citizens 

Working with associations 

Working with businesses and 

laboratories 

Working with schools 

Informing and rallying residents 

in 2008 

Citizen participation after 2008 

Chapter 4 

How is the project 

mobilising citizens? 

How are citizens 

participating in 

the development 

of the project?

Chapter 4 






of the project? 

4.1 

Implementing 

the strategy for 

mobilising citizens 

136 

Chapter 4 : How is the project 


How are citizens participating in 

the development of the project? 

In Chapter 6 of the pre-selection report (p. 221), 

we described our strategy for mobilising citizens and 

the general public. It includes 12 arrangements, 

in particular: 

– Assessing the results of the public support campaign 

launched in 2006, 

– Grouping the cultural, political and economic 

stakeholders of the bid into a “mobilisation 

committee”, 

– Defining objectives for citizen mobilisation by this 

said committee and choosing target audiences for 

marketing and participation activities, 

– Selecting preview projects for the Capital year and 

the timetable for their implementation between 

2007 and 2013, 

– Launching the first actions in 2007, 

– Evaluating and committing the necessary human 

and financial resources. 

This strategy was fine-tuned in 2008 after visiting 

European Capitals of Culture and analysing their 

organisers’ work (Istanbul, Essen, Linz, Luxembourg, 

Liverpool, Lille), and after re-evaluating the effects 

of actions carried out throughout the territory of 

Marseilles-Provence in 2007. 

We selected an initial group of 

associations, businesses, laboratories 

and schools throughout the territory, 

with the aim of: 

– mobilising employees, 

– mobilising residents, 

– mobilising students. 

A decision was taken to develop the theme launched 

in 2007, “Everyone is Involved”, in 2008. 

To do this, we selected an initial group of associations, 

businesses, laboratories and schools throughout the 

territory, with the aim of: 

– mobilising employees, 

– mobilising residents, 

– mobilising pupils and students, 

through structures that can engage citizens in the 

Capital project’s programmes over the long-term 

and throughout their entire preparation and implementation 

phases. Companies have been asked 

to set up the first “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

(Euro-Mediterranean Workshops). Associations 

and schools have been asked to launch projects 

promoting artistic training and cultural practices 

related to the bid’s themes. 

We were able to test both our ability to mobilise 

people and the feasibility of sustainable, participative 

activities closely linked to the project’s issues and 

programmes. 

In addition, in 2008, we have continued and expanded 

the long-term programmes initiated in 2007 that 

aim to get citizens involved in the project process: 

– “New Commissioners”: Strategy 2 – Theme 4 

– “Youth in Action”: Strategy 2 – Theme 4 

137

Chapter 4 







4.2 

Working 

with associations 

138 





Five selection criteria were established for the associations we chose to work with on 

participative projects in 2008. 

The first stems from applying one of the bid’s founding principles: to promote access to 

culture for all people. Our approach has obviously prioritised audiences that have been 

neglected or even traditionally denied access to culture. These include, but are not limi- 

ted to or in any order of priority: prisoners, disabled, ill or mentally handicapped people, 

newcomers, “visible minorities”, people living in inner-city areas, the homeless, etc. 

The second criterion focuses on actions involving the greatest diversity of participants to 

enhance networking both locally and internationally. This approach has often led us to 

organise meetings between project sponsors or to simply highlight projects that already in- 

volve people from very diverse geographical, professional or socio-economic backgrounds. 

The third criterion relates to the bid’s project meshing throughout the territory. 

This principle has already been applied this year and will be developed in upcoming 

years. The aim is both to ensure that the distribution of projects is compatible and 

balanced throughout the territory while also favouring nomadic, mobile projects. 

The fourth criterion is the production’s artistic quality. Our goal is to combine excel- 

lence and popular appeal. 

The final criterion is the project’s consistency with the bid’s major themes. 

139





4.2.A 

Participative 

projects 

undertaken 

by associations 

140 

Associative projects 

with an international 

character 

Aix’Qui? 

The Class Eurock project is a musical springboard 

that takes place in and around the “Pays d’Aix”. 

Participants must still be in school, can only interpret 

compositions, and must be under the age of 23. The 

Aix’Qui? association has exported its concept to Spain, 

Italy and Germany. Member of the Cities on The 

Edge network, the association has initiated an exchange 

this year with Liverpool ‘08. 

ADDAP 

This association of street workers is taking eight 

adolescents from an underprivileged district of Marseilles 

to Morocco to help renovate a community 

centre in the village of Tinfate. This is an ideal opportunity 

for intercultural meetings, exchange and 

dialogue. 

ARTECO 

This association organises percussion classes for 

amateur and semi-professional musicians in and around 

the Mediterranean rim. Lebanese, Italian, Tunisian 

and French people come together for three-day residencies 

in each country, before performing a concert. 

Compagnie Grenade 

Choreographer Josette Baïz’s association proposes a 

residency in the German capital with contemporary 

dance workshops for children – a preamble to a 

performance of Ulysses by the children from the 

Compagnie Grenada, which will take place next 

September in Gütersloh and Berlin. 

Les Voies du Chant 

This association is organising “Chorifé”, a residency 

project for adolescent choristers from Salonica, Marseilles 

and Riga. Young people will come together in 

each of these cities for workshops around a common 

repertoire and will put on a concert in Marseilles. 

Lieux Fictifs 

Since 1997, “Lieux Fictifs” has implemented a project 

called “Image in Prison” that consists of film workshops 

at the Marseilles prison. This project, which resulted 

in the film 9m 2 , will be developed over the next five 

years in the context of the European multi-year 

programme known as “Borders”, involving Marseilles, 

Barcelona, Oslo, Wuppertal and Milan. 





ERAC - ISTS 

The mission of the ERAC (Ecole Régionale d’Acteur 

de Cannes – Cannes Regional Acting School) is to 

train actors in the dramatic arts and to expand their 

horizons to encourage encounters. Associated with 

the ISTS (Avignon), ERAC’s work is firmly anchored 

in this partnership, particularly in connection with 

mixed residencies involving Moscow’s Okolo Theatre, 

the Stabile in Turin and the École National de Théâtre 

de Cluj (Cluj National Theatre School). 

Médiation Culturelle Européenne (MCE) 

The association proposes the “High Points Workshops” 

dedicated to introducing people to Mediterranean 

rhythms. Goblet drums, tambourines, cajòns and even 

palmas are the instruments that underpin Mediterranean 

music, whose rhythms are as diverse as its people’s 

lifestyles and backgrounds. 


designed for specific 

audiences 

La Maison de Gardanne 

This association-run centre welcomes terminally ill 

patients. In addition to its role as a palliative care 

centre, the centre organises artistic workshops run by 

professionals for its patients. Painting, writing and 

photography take place each week, and the work is 

then exhibited. This year, Marseille-Provence 2013 

is sponsoring a story-telling workshop. 

L’Art Plus Fort que le Handicap 

(Art Stronger than Disability) 

This association is organising an arts festival involving 

both disabled and able individuals. This event is the 

result of workshops held throughout the year in specialised 

centres, IMEs (Instituts Médico-Educatifs) 

and CATs (Centre d’Aide par le Travail) throughout 

the entire Bouches-du-Rhône Département. 

Le Théâtre Off 

This theatre company offers drama workshops in 

prisons and detention centres for minors. Supervised 

by prison staff, a psychologist and social workers, these 

workshops give prisoners the opportunity to experience 

writing as well as acting. These activities 

resulted in the play “Parloir Sauvage” (Wild Parlour), 

which has been performed in Festval of Avignon, La 

Criée and at the National Theâtre de Nice by two 

former detainees who have since gone on to become 

professional actors. 

Cultures du Cœur (Cultures of the Heart) 

The aim of “Cultures du Cœur” is to combat exclusion 

by promoting access to culture for all people (families, 

children, adults on their own) in particularly precarious 

situations. The organisation of cultural outings (theatre, 

concerts, cinema, festivals, art galleries, etc.) relies on 

a network of 258 cultural companies and 293 socialservices 

groups. 

141






related to the bid’s 

major themes 

142 


The Théâtre de la Mer 

The “Théâtre de la Mer” promotes drama in dis- 

advantaged areas of Marseilles. With a constant focus 

on memory and the quest for identity, the Company 

offers mixed residencies in Marseilles, Amsterdam 

and Tetouan. These workshops, entitled “Journey to 

the Roots”, will allow authors to compare their views 

on exile, memory and origins with inhabitants of the 

cities in which they will take place. 

Written Outcries 

With several books devoted to the life of various 

districts in Marseilles already under its belt, the association 

is preparing a collection of personal stories 

about the Cité des Créneaux located in the Northern 

part of the city. Besides its geographical location and 

its urban renewal programme, this inner-city area 

stands out for its concentration of single-parent families. 

The women, mostly of immigrant origin, play 

an important role there. 

Not Seen on TV 

Located in the Estaque district, the association aims to 

foster ties between newcomers and long-time residents, 

between the young and old and, of course, between 

different communities, particularly the Gypsy and North 

African populations. The association has been collecting 

photos, interviews and other memorabilia for a long 

time and this year plans to create an Everyday Nomadic 

Museum not about residents, but with them. 


Mare Nostrum: The Adventures of Juha 

In partnership with schools in Algeria and Italy and 

with the collaboration of artists, children from Marseilles, 

Kabyle-speaking countries and Sicily will attend 

storytelling, writing and calligraphy workshops with 

an underlying theme based on Juha, a character who 

symbolises the common heritage shared by countries 

in the Mediterranean Basin. The action will take 

place over five years and will result in the publication 

of an educational book containing the children’s work 

in their three respective languages. 


Les Petits Débrouillards 

This association that simplifies science has been 

working in various districts for years. As part of its 

“Cités Débrouillardes” (Resourceful Cities) action, 

it will run workshops this year during school holidays 

in Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence. These waterthemed 

workshops will welcome children who are 

not enrolled in social-or leisure-centre activities. 






Art Laboratory in the City – Gare Franche 

The Wladyslaw Znorko’s Cosmos Kolej company, 

along with several artists in residence, scientists and 

planners, are organising workshops to explore the 

physical world of the hills of Northern Marseilles, 

involving residents, schools and social-services and 

employment centres. Collaboration with Marrakech 

will be developed between 2009 and 2013. 

Les têtes de l’Art (Art Stubborns) 

In his “Towns Going To” project, visual artist Xavier 

Latvian will accompany a group of residents as they go 

about their daily commutes. Photos, super-8 films, video 

or audio recordings will allow the artist and Art Stubborns 

to post these journeys on a shared virtual 

space. 

Urban Dreams Company 

Led by architects, sociologists and visual artists, this 

structure aims to get residents, pupils, employees and 

other social groups to rethink their living spaces in 

order to rediscover and improve them. After the design 

phase, the public will implement their own projects 

using appropriate construction materials. 

143

Chapter 4 







4.3 

Working with 

businesses 

and laboratories 

144 





4.3.A 

The “Ateliers 


(Euro- 

Mediterranean 

Workshops) 

in businesses 

As early as 2006, a study conducted by Jean Digne, 

Chairman of “Hors les Murs” (Outside the Walls), 

for the “Mécènes du Sud” association, proposed a plan 

entitled “1000 Talents” for businesses in Marseilles to 

host and provide residencies for international creators 

and artists. We have been inspired by this work. 

Principle 

The principle underlying this project is to consider 

business from a humanistic perspective: a group of 

men and women working together in a common space. 

The idea is no longer to tie a company’s image to a 

cultural event, but to implicate company personnel 

in the artistic act itself. Businesses taking part will 

thus welcome one or several artists (musicians, visual 

artists, writers, filmmakers, etc.) and allow them to 

create while sharing their artistic approach with 

employees and even customers. 

Objectives 

For company personnel, the objective is to approach 

artistic creation from another angle than that of 

cultural consumption and to create links between 

people as they discover other forms of creativity beyond 

the context of their jobs. For the business, the project 

provides an opportunity to portray itself differently 

and have its employees become its ambassadors, while 

participating in the major project of the European 

Capital of Culture federates and gives their own project 

an ambitious goal. 


As a candidate city, Marseilles-Provence chose to 

validate this approach in collaboration with the 

Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the “Top 20 

Club” and the “Mécènes du Sud”. In February 2008, 

companies were approached based on: 

– The bid’s geographical coverage, 

– The diversity in the sizes of businesses, 

– The diversity of activities (retailer, textiles, new 

technologies, etc.). 

Judging by the initial results and by the numerous 

requests from companies wanting to get involved with 

the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” project as soon 

as possible, it is reasonable to assume that the concept 

can spread very quickly and involve around fifty 

companies each year until 2013. 

In connection with “InterMed” (see p. 27), plans are 

underway to present all of these actions to the general 

public. 

145





The workshops started in April 2008, according to 

the following table: 

The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” in businesses 

Business Activity Employees Area Project Workshops 

Haribo Confectionery 450 Marseilles Musicals on the history of the company. Costume workshops 

with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2008. 

Marianne Cat Retailer 3 Marseilles Michèle Sylvander 

Video installation on the theme of the veil. 

Quadrissimo Printing, copying Marseilles Printing artists’ work (visual and graffiti artists and photographers) 

from missions in Vilnius, Pécs, Maribor, Tallinn and Istanbul. 

Optis Creation of simulation software 

for interactions between light 

and its environment 

146 

45 Toulon Under development. 

September 

2008 

June 2008 

June 2008 

Eurocopter Helicopter manufacturer 8000 Marignane 5 artists for 5 common values shared by employees. August 2008 

Axes Sud Graphic arts and visual 

communication school 

Puyricard Chocolate factory 80 Puyricard Under development. 

Caisse 

d’Épargne 

Bank 800 Marseilles, 

Aix, Vitrolles, 

Aubagne 

Marseilles Student exchanges (Marseilles and Istanbul). May 2008 

Choirs. Texts written by employees. 

Hôtel Pullman 4* Hotel 100 Marseilles Suzanne Hetzel, German photographer: a special report on 

employees’ daily life. Tanguy Moyet, magician from Marseilles, 

will teach magic tricks to waitors. With additional circus acts 

outside the hotel. 

October 

2008 

Cabus et Raulot Distribution of electrical equipment 70 Marseilles Music workshops (percussion) with the group Symbléma. May 2008 

Pébéo Paint manufacturer 180 Gémenos Culinary workshop on the theme of colour 

with a scientist and a chef. 

LERM Laboratoire d’Etude et de Recherche 

sur les Matériaux 

(Materials Research Laboratory) 

60 Arles To be determined. 





4.3.B 

The “Ateliers 


project in 

laboratories 

Principle 

The laboratory workshops project adheres to the same 

principle as the business workshops, i.e. working closely 

with the men and women who make up various research 

teams and implicating research personnel in the artistic 

act itself in order to foster a dynamic environment for 

members of the laboratory. It is based on an opportunity 

for the artist, whatever his or her discipline, to share 

his or her artistic approach with laboratory staff, but it 

is also and especially an opportunity for the artist and 

researcher to share the fundamentals of their respective 

approaches: questioning, doubt and experimentation 

through its trials and errors. 

Finally, some research subjects, particularly those which 

involve questions about society, can provide an impetus 

in themselves for an artistic process leading to occasionally 

destabilising creations capable of turning scientific and 

public representations upside down (see “Art Biotech” 

by Jens Hauser at Lieu Unique (Nantes), or the Cloaca 

2000-2007 retrospective by Wilm Delvoye in Luxemburg, 

last year’s European Capital of Culture, for instance). 

Objectives 

The objectives of the laboratory workshops will be 

extended to include the mutual enrichment of the 

“creators” who adopt similar research approaches, 

despite the fact that some are in scientific/academic 

fields while others are in artistic fields. This collaboration 

will be presented either as works of art or open 

sites and, depending on the theme, will be open to the 

general public, both academic and non-academic. 


If its bid is successful, Marseilles-Provence will seek 

an endorsement of this approach from the DRRT 

(Délégation Régionale à la Recherche et à la Technologie 

– Regional Delegation for Research and 

Technology) and from the University Chancellor, as 

it did for the workshops set up in businesses. Initial 

contacts have been established with institutions that 

are already collaborating with artists. For example, in 

Luminy: INMED (Institut de Neurobiologie Méditerranéenne 

– Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology), 

CPPM (Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille 

– Marseilles Centre for the Physics of Particules), ISM 

Etienne-Jules Marey (Institut des Sciences du Mouvement 

– Institute of Sciences relating to Movement); 

in Saint-Charles: ESCUP (Espace Science et Culture 

de l’Université de Provence – Centre of Science and 

Culture at the University of Provence); Services de 

Microscopie de Saint Charles et Saint Jérôme (Microscopy 

Services of Saint Charles and Saint Jérôme); 

in Aubagne: SATIS Department (Sciences, Arts et 

Techniques de l’Image et du Son – Sciences, Arts and 

Techniques for Images and Sound). 

A call for participation could be launched using the 

Science Festival’s contact network, which covers most 

figures involved in research and higher education. 

Criteria such as the ability to host foreign artists, especially 

Mediterranean ones, may be included in this 

call for participation. 

147

Chapter 4 







4.4 

Working 

with schools 

148 





As with the projects involving associations, participative 

projects in schools were selected along the lines 

of the following criteria, established in cooperation 

with academic authorities, whose enthusiasm with 

regard to these projects must, once again, be 

highlighted: 

– Populations at risk and particularly students with 

limited resources, who are targeted by the artistic 

education and cultural action policy outlined by 

the Aix-Marseilles academic authorities, 

– Priority zones, including “pilot zones” in particular, 

and “collèges ambition réussite” (lower-secondary 

schools with ambitions for success) as defined by 

the French National Board of Education, 

– Workshops conducted internationally via exchanges 

with European and Mediterranean institutions, 

– Projects’ compliance with the bid’s themes and 

pursuit of the best relationship between the common 

multi-year themes proposed by the academic 

authorities and the European Capital of Culture 

project themes, 

– The quality of projects and the artists involved in 

these projects. 

4.4.A 

Participative 

projects involving 

schools 

International projects 

that tie into the “Ateliers 


European Autobiography Day 

This project brings together pupils from different schools, 

in particular those who have reading and writing difficulties, 

to share their work that was completed during 

artistic workshops. In 2008, the action is being extended 

to European and Mediterranean countries: Italy, Germany, 

Hungary, Greece and Morocco. 

In 2008, the Marseille-Provence 2013 Association 

provided financial support for all of the teachers involved 

in the autobiography workshop from Hungary, 

Italy, Greece, Germany and Morocco to meet in 

Marseilles. In 2009, it will provide support to host 

pupils from these countries, to present and to pool 

their work together. 

149





Mediterranean Intercultural Network 

This twinning project, implemented by the “Groupe 

de Recherche en Histoires des Idées” (Stories and 

Ideas Research Group), consists of establishing ties 

with a Euro-Mediterranean sister city. The goal is to 

develop an educational network for intercultural 

training in Marseilles and throughout the Euro- 

Mediterranean. In October 2008, a group from a school 

in Catania (Italy) will be welcomed in Marseilles. 

Educational Workshops of the Mediterranean 

The purpose of these workshops is to demonstrate the 

uniqueness of the Mediterranean to young children 

and create a space for culture, interracial mixing, 

exchanges, civilisations and identity. These workshops 

offer teachers and pupils the opportunity to develop 

several tools including cartography, orienteering, 

observation and travel logs, short films, etc. 

150 

Projects related 

to the bid’s 

major themes 


Overseas and the Colonial World 

In conjunction with the creation of an Overseas 

Memorial, the archives department of the City of 

Marseilles is organising educational workshops for 

students from CM1 (Year 5) to troisième (Year 10) 

devoted to the history of both colonisation and 

Marseilles. 


Introduction to Cultural and Religious Heritage 

The European Mediterranean Observatory for Peace 

is organising a workshop whose aim is to introduce 

lower-secondary school pupils to the diversity of religious 

cultures found in Marseilles. The themes of 

religious practices are approached via artistic and 

historical visits to three religious monuments. A 

classroom session on secularism in connection with 

the themes of eco-citizenship and freedom of thought 

concludes this workshop. 


Artistic Expression on the Theme of Relations 

between Boys and Girls 

A team of actors from the Kartoffeln Company works 

in mixed-gender pairs with pupils on expressing their 

identity and reflecting about relations between the 

sexes. The company proposes a performance on the 

same theme, during which characters ask questions 

about sexual identity, featuring scenes of men and 

women in the media, and show their difficulties 

communicating with one another. 


Exhibition/Game: “Tribulations from a Drop of 

Water” 

The Centre de Culture Scientifique Technique et 

Industrielle (CCSTI) (Scientific, Technical and Industrial 

Cultural Centre) from Marseilles proposes a 

watery escapade that knows no bounds: from clouds to 

snow, from rivers to aquifers. “Tribulations from a Drop 

of Water” encourages children into a game of endless 

trails, in which they address issues related to the use, 

preservation, legislation and distribution of water. 






About the Sharing of Water 

With a focus on water, the CICRP and Noël Casanova 

offer pupils the chance to discover places and objects 

by following routes that can be found in the school’s 

immediate surroundings or during class trips. 

Questions that will be addressed include: freshwater 

and drinking water from Antiquity to the nineteenth 

century, water and health, modern water systems in 

homes, the monumental celebration of water (architecture 

at the Longchamp Palace), agriculture, industry 

and water-related professions. 


Springtime of Street Art’s Wild History in Lower- 

Secondary Schools 

From March to May, an awareness campaign about 

street arts is scheduled in eight lower-secondary schools 

in the ‘Bouches-du-Rhône Département’. Three 

companies are working with these schools and will 

run one or more creative workshops in the classroom. 

Each of these companies will put on a performance 

at the school. In addition, a teaching kit has been 

developed and given to teachers who will use it to 

illustrate their street arts awareness programme. 


La Gare Franche – Cosmos Kolej 

One of the pilot projects implemented in 2007-2008 

in the City of Marseilles is located in one of the most 

difficult areas of Northern Marseilles. It is based on 

the cultural structure of the “Gare Franche” and 

involves two nursery schools, two primary schools, 

an “ambition réussite” lower-secondary school (Elsa 

Triolet), the La Viste Vocational Secondary School 

and eventually the Saint Exupéry General and Technological 

Secondary School, all working on multifaceted 

projects related to artistic expression. 


New Collectors at the Lower-Secondary School 

This workshop was initiated by the “Bureau des 

Compétences et Désirs” to encourage lower-secondary 

school pupils to express their tastes when faced with 

the possibility of artistic creation. After acquiring the 

necessary knowledge via a comprehensive programme 

that includes visits to places devoted to art, meetings 

with professionals and discussions about major artistic 

trends, the pupils will put together a collection which 

will become the Lower-Secondary School Collection. 

The works will then be lent out based on an art library 

model and will also be part of an annual exhibition. 


Discovering Digital Arts 

The workshops organised by “Second Nature” focus 

on Net Art and Internet usage, as well as visits to 

thematic or monographic exhibitions at the Vasarely 

Foundation. 

151

Chapter 4 







4.5 

Informing and rallying 

residents in 2008 

152 





4.5.A 

Publicise the 

stakes, increase 

visibility, increase 

the bid’s relays 

of information 

A marketing campaign 

in public spaces 

In the beginning of 2008, publications produced by 

local authorities that have partnered up with Marseille- 

Provence 2013 – municipal newspapers and the review 

of the ‘Conseil Général’, which reach nearly 1.6 

million readers – announced the selection of Marseille- 

Provence 2013 as a finalist to the general public. Its 

aim of informing the local population was reinforced 

by a poster campaign using municipal facilities. 

A new poster campaign scheduled for the summer of 

2008 throughout the area implicated in the bid, implemented 

using network facilities of partnering public 

authorities, will appeal to the public, while RTM 

trams, buses and the underground will be clad in 

the colours of Marseille-Provence 2013. 

Meanwhile, 110,000 leaflets were distributed to 

cultural places, schools and universities, and in June, 

at tourist sites, hotels and tourist offices as well as at 

festivals taking place throughout the region. Communication 

about events that Marseilles-Provence 

has officially approved as part of the European Cultural 

Season provided an additional opportunity to present 

the bid. With support from the publisher Actes Sud, 

30,000 notebooks published in Marseille-Provence 

2013 colours rounded off this marketing campaign. 

A giant tarpaulin hung at the entrance to the City of 

Marseilles on an imposing, 700 m² wall of the Silo 

symbolically launched this campaign. 

Cultural establishments as well as businesses, led by 

the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, were mobilised. 

The Marseilles-Provence airport, the Street Arts 

Academy, the Société Marseillaise de Crédit, the head 

office of Crédit Agricole Alpes Provence, the Écureuil 

Foundation, among others, have installed tarpaulins 

in support of the bid. The screens at the Airport and 

at the Foire de Marseille (Marseilles Fair) have also 

adopted the Marseille-Provence 2013 colours. 

153





A marketing campaign 

at major cultural events 

The visibility of Marseille-Provence 2013 at major 

cultural events throughout the summer is ensured. 

The International Photography Encounters in Arles, 

the International Documentary Festival in Marseilles 

(FID), the Festival of Marseilles, the Five Continents 

Jazz Festival, the Piano Festival of La Roque d’Antheron 

and the Opera Festival of Aix-en-Provence 

are among those supporting the bid in their catalogues 

and programmes. 

Similarly, brochures for the 2008-2009 season of major 

cultural institutions in the region, such as the Grand 

Theâtre of Provence/Gymnase/Jeu de Paume as well 

as the theatres of La Criée, the Salins and Arles among 

others, are also promoting the bid. 

154 

A campaign to mobilise 

relays and to prepare 

future ambassadors 

After leading a delegation of business leaders to get 

an idea of the scope of events happening at Liverpool 

2008, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry went 

on a tour of the region’s central cities to exchange 

with businesses and retailers about the bid. 

This operation has raised retailers’ awareness about 

the impacts and economic knock-on effects that the 

bid could generate, so that they in turn become motivated 

relays of information. Hotels have also been 

informed and encouraged to publicise and promote 

the bid to their customers. 

The Marseilles-Provence team, with reinforcements 

from young people belonging to the Unis-Cité association, 

Civil Service and European Voluntary 

Service (EVS), has started promoting encounters 

with the general population by setting up bid information 

booths at a number of major public events, 

popular gatherings, trade fairs and festivals. 

In parallel, local relays have also been visited and 

encouraged to support the bid and spread information. 

Nautical companies, the “Ordre des Avocats” (the 

Bar), researchers, teachers (especially via the CRDP), 

the “Confédération des Comités d’Intérêts de Quartiers” 

(Confederation of District Interest Committees) 

and its 110,000 members, OM supporters’ clubs, social 

centres and popular education federations are now 

associated to the bid. 

Since spring, traditional district celebrations organised 

by “Comités d’Intérêts de Quartiers” have also provided 

ample opportunities to communicate information about 

the bid and encourage people to support it. 





A crucial partnership 

with the local and 

regional press 

In addition to excellent coverage by newspapers and 

radio, Marseille-Provence 2013 has managed to negotiate 

a successful partnership with local television 

stations. Television channels such as La Chaîne 

Marseille - LCM (the Marseilles Station), France 3 

Mediterranean or Canal Maritima (in Martigues) 

have opened up significant chunks of their programming 

for news and reports related to the bid. Similarly, 

OM-TV, Olympique de Marseille’s channel, became 

a mouthpiece for the bid by inviting Marseille- 

Provence 2013 to its pre-game shows. 

A website to accompany 

information and support 

the bid 

Informing 

Marseille-Provence 2013’s website has evolved in 

2008 towards a more dynamic site, informing the 

public via a series of short news segments about the 

Marseilles-Provence bid (the team’s trips in Europe 

and the Mediterranean, the bid’s pilot projects and 

workshops, and major European events). Approximately 

80 articles have been written and posted along 

with photos, sound recordings and videos. 

Integrating and familiarising 

The site also acted as a catalyst for different support 

initiatives on the web; the Marseille2013.org project 

has been incorporated into the navigation without 

the initiative losing its independence as a result. The 

media project Blog 2.013 (described in report no. 1, 

p. 225) developed in partnership with Radio Grenouille, 

has been clarified and four blog channels have 

been created, based on their content: BlogThéma 

(documents and explores the bid’s major themes), 

BlogPilotes (prolongs or decrypts pilot projects), 

BlogArtistes (project proposal space for artists developed 

on Marseille2013.org) and BlogCommuns. The 

last blog channel is the most participatory of them 

all, with contributions by and for communities working 

on bid projects. A project has been developed related 

to this with residents from the Belle de Mai district, 

with the help of Claude Renard from the Institute of 

Cities. It’s simply one more way to implicate the local 

population in the Marseilles-Provence bid and to test 

an association-based cultural media project. The 

Medialab 2.013 project is described in detail in 

Chapter 5. 

Providing support for the bid 

To accompany this mobilisation campaign, a bid 

“support kit” was put online in April. It contains a set 

of documents and communication tools that can be 

downloaded immediately and a service for ordering 

associated accessories that will allow companies, associations 

and cultural structures to actively take 

charge of publicising the bid. 

The “Bid Supporters” space also went live in June. 

The last component of the support space, it allows 

anyone to send a personalised message expressing 

their support for the bid. The system, designed by a 

new graphic arts agency in Marseilles, can be adapted 

to the web as well as public spaces and playfully displays 

the bid themes. 

155





4.5.B 

Popular events 

to rally residents 

from the territory 

implicated in 

the bid 

In addition to the participative projects in businesses, 

associations and schools – which are key elements 

of our mobilisation strategy – we produced nearly 

50 cultural events together with stakeholders 

throughout the territory in 2008. Some of them 

will bring together large audiences from every background 

to celebrate the bid. 

156 

RéCLAME 

The rue Saint Ferréol has entered into the equation, 

not only as a long pedestrian road and retail area in 

the centre of Marseilles, but also as a place of creation 

in its own right. Brigitte Cirla, artistic director of Voix 

Polyphoniques, seized the opportunity to propose 

Réclame, a concert specially designed for this street 

featuring 10 soloists and 200 amateur choristers. 

The vocal piece, written with Marianne Suner and 

Jean Tricot, remixes advertising slogans and transforms 

them into poetic refrains presenting the European 

Capital of Culture. 

When retailers close up shop, market rumours make 

way for polyphony. Three stations were set up along a 

200 metre stretch for the public to stroll, stop and follow 

the musical wave up and down the street, taking in the 

surprising and hard-hitting sounds of the twenty-first 

century. (10th May 2008 / creation Lieux Publics) 

Engrenages: sound, radio and urban event 

Engrenages offers multiple listening stations throughout 

the city, allowing one to hear and live out the 

urban space differently and see it from several different 

angles. An ambulatory and auditory rediscovery based 

on a museum audio tour but with a twist; a blind 

promenade guided by the sounds of the town or a 

radio-guided cinema by the Ici-même group (Grenoble); 

a radio picnic at Pierres Plates accompanied by 

sound creators and their latest concoctions; or a pause 

at the music kiosk of the Réformés with a documentary 

collage courtesy of Café Verre… 

Engrenages also intervenes in certain places (Montévidéo, 

La Friche La Belle de Mai, the Théâtre du 

Merlan), proposing an art de l’écoute, or listening style, 

exhibited as creations are rolled out. All of these forms 

are the result of collaborative work, produced or coproduced 

by Grenouille-Euphonia in connection with 

the bid. (21st-25th May 2008) 

Souk de la Parole (The Language Bazaar) 

The public was invited to participate in linguistic and 

musical repartee in a huge, ephemeral bamboo structure 

measuring 10 metres high. Participants revealed 

and discovered all sorts of words and stories, talked, 

exchanged or questioned the word explorers. For three 

nights, the bazaar was packed and the public was free 

to roam through it and stay as long as they wanted. 

In preparation for the bazaar’s construction, and in 

order to echo the themes of Marseilles’ European Capital 

of Culture 2013 bid, the Caracol Company and Lieux 

Publics organised a survey for a “fresco-inventory”. 

The results served as blueprints for three artists: 

Nicolas Diaz (painter), Toni Casalonga (illustrator) 

and Faouzia Hilmy (calligraphy artist). They thus 

created a new map: an imaginative projection of the 

Marseilles-Provence region. (30th May-1st June 

2008) 





OM Match 

After travelling nearly 4,700 km from Marseille to 

Gdansk, the artistic caravan of Marc Boucherot and 

Philippe Ivanès – clad in the Marseille-Provence 2013 

colours – symbolically ended its trip in front of the 

stands at the Velodrome stadium for the OM-Bordeaux 

match on the 4th May. The project, entitled “From 

the Baltic to the Mediterranean”, could best be described 

as an artistic road story that aimed to build a 

bridge between the two shores and seek out “encounters 

with others” in a simple and friendly way. With 

OM’s agreement, Marseille-Provence 2013 kicked-off 

the match while the winners unleashed a “typho” of 

support for the bid (4th May). 

In March 2009, if the bid is successful, we have made 

plans with the City of Lille to organise, in connection 

with the “Lille 3000” event devoted to Central Europe, 

and in both cities, a relay ceremony and party as the 

2004 Capital makes way for the 2013 Capital. 

157

Chapter 4 







4.6 

Citizen participation 

after 2008 

158 





If the Marseilles-Provence bid is successful: 

50 new “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” will be 

started in businesses and laboratories in 2009 and 

50 more each year until 2013 (Target for 2013: 200 

to 250 companies or laboratories). This commitment 

has been made by the Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry of Marseilles-Provence, by businesses belonging 

to the “Top 20” club and by members of the 

“Mécènes du Sud”. 

With regard to associations, the projects already 

underway will be pursued year after year. Each year, 

starting in 2009, a minimum of 20 new associations 

will be assisted as they develop participative projects 

related to the bid’s themes via: 

– call for projects for “1001 Nights” (see Appendix, 

prog. 59) 

– call for projects for “New Commissioners” (see 

Appendix, prog. 61) 

– preparations for the popular gatherings, launching 

each of the four seasons during the Capital year. 

– preparations for the “Fashion Sails” project 

(see Appendix prog. 8) 

– preparations, by company employees participating 

in the “Revelations” project (see Appendix 

prog. 55b) 

At schools, projects uniting nursery schools, primary 

schools, lower-secondary schools and vocational secondary 

schools within the same pilot area over several 

years will be developed. In addition, the international 

aspect of these workshops will be amplified. In the 

context of partnerships established between the school 

authorities and other countries, including Morocco 

(Tangier-Tetouan Authorities), Kent in the UK, 

Germany and Italy, the cultural aspects have been 

outlined and are subject to precise specifications. 

Opening up to the Mediterranean is a key strategy, 

in particular with Morocco and the three-year cultural 

partnership that has been established with it. 

In 2009, a Euro-Mediterranean geopolitical workshop 

will be created from teaching materials designed 

by Jean-Christophe Victor (TV producer of the 

programme “Le Dessous des Cartes” [The Flipside of 

the Map] on the European channel ARTE). 

New workshops will be launched on the following 

bid themes: 

– Albert Camus 

– Athens, Cordoba, Jerusalem 

– Knowledge of Religions 

– On the Roads of Exile 

– Le Partage des Midis: Painters and the Mediterranean 

– The Colonial Imagination 

– Vessels, Navigation, Navigators 

– The Sharing of Water 

– One Thousand and One Nights 

As during the pre-selection stage, we remain committed 

to our mobilisation strategy that emphasises 

active, sustainable, continuous and progressive citizen 

participation as we prepare the European 

Capital of Culture project, as opposed to costly and 

premature ephemeral events. This extensive work 

requires considerable energy that has been met by 

the exemplary commitment and exceptional quality 

of business leaders, heads of associations and artists 

working in these establishments, teachers and 

educational professionals in schools and their administrative 

superiors. 

Thanks to them, support for the bid and a willingness 

to actively participate in planning the project’s 

content and addressing its associated issues have 

both been enhanced in 2008. 

159

© Vincent Lucas 

© Vincent Lucas © Gilles Clément 

© Vincent Lucas © Beata Staszynska 

160 161



© c-ktre © c-ktre © Quadrissimo 

© Gilles Clément 

162 163 

© E330

François Moura © Marseille-Provence 2013 

François Moura © Marseille-Provence 2013 François Moura © Marseille-Provence 2013 






164 165





166 167 

© Ville d'Arles 


François Moura © Marseille-Provence 2013

172 

178 

182 

188 

190 

5.1 

5.2 

5.3 

5.4 

5.5 

Future governance of the project 

Organisation 

The budget 

Evaluation and managementmonitoring 

tools 

Strategy concerning citizen 

mobilisation, promotion, 

communications and tourism 

development from 2009 to 2013 

Chapter 5 

How is the project’s 

implementation 

being prepared?

Chapter 5 How is the project’s 

implementation being prepared? 

170 



The Marseille-Provence 2013 Association was created in January 2007. All of the partners 

of the bid area have met at quarterly intervals in the context of the Administrative Board 

and the Steering Committee, in order to approve the bid project, the charter of the Associa- 

tion and the resources to be implemented. The Association is thus fully operational today. 

The application period, which the new European directive offers European Capitals of 

Culture, was used to learn from past and current experiences (notably, Genoa and Lille 2004, 

Luxembourg 2007, Liverpool 2008, Linz 2009 and Essen 2010, with whom regular contact 

has been established) in order to conduct an overall assessment. 

An assessment of questions in all areas was conducted by experts and discussions were held 

to facilitate the necessary arbitration. 

In particular, we were warned of possible cost overruns associated with a lengthy preparatory 

period. We were also warned of the risk that either the team or the stakeholders might fall 

victim to saturation, while the public’s enthusiasm could wane over such a long period. 

A dynamic operational process is underway and the Marseilles-Provence region is ready 

to launch this major project as soon as the result is announced. 

171

Chapter 5 




5.1 

Future governance 


172 



5.1.A 

Legal review 

In January 2008, we launched a study on the various 

legal statuses possible for supporting the project, by 

combining two imperatives: 

– Providing financial partners with solemn guarantees 

of good management practices and respect of the 

law, notably regarding the transparency of action, 

establishing responsibility, competitive tendering 

and the redistribution of subsidies; 

– Ensuring complete independence in terms of artistic 

choices as well as the flexibility and reactivity necessary 

for the implementation of such large-scale 

projects. 

After an initial cursory review, the following legal 

forms were retained for the study: 

– The Groupement d’Intérêt Public Culturel (GIPC 

– Cultural Public Interest Grouping); 

– The Etablissement Public de Coopération Culturel 

(EPCC – Public Establishment for Cultural 

Cooperation); 

– An Association in accordance with “1901 Law”. 

This study (see Appendix to Questionnaire) was distributed 

to all partners for review by their respective legal 

departments. Other studies have also been commissioned 

by the City of Marseilles. They supported the same 

conclusions regarding the legal status. After several 

discussions, the following consensus was reached: 

The legal status of an association will be retained and 

reinforced by: 

– The adoption of an Association charter that will 

define the general scope of action (see Appendix 

to Questionnaire). 

– The adoption of internal policy that will determine: 

– Relations between the Association’s governing 

bodies; 

– The principles and restrictions regarding the 

delegation of authority and of signature, and 

personnel recruitment; 

– The introduction of validation procedures for 

projects and financial commitments by an ad hoc 

committee composed of the representatives of 

financial partners; 

– The Association’s rules of governance in order to 

ensure the consistency, independence and transparency 

of actions and decisions taken its administrative 

and executive bodies, notably on the 

artistic front; 

– A procedural guide that will reinforce the transparency 

of the decision-making process and the 

flow of finances. This guide will establish regulations 

for the competitive tendering of the goods 

and services of the Association; 

– An annual external audit by an independent European 

auditor, who along with the Statutory Auditors, 

will review procedures and the organisation; 

– The use of standard contracts with cultural partners 

will strengthen and homogenise the Association’s 

modus operandi. 

In light of these reinforcements, the Administrative 

Board formally approved the choice of an Association 

in accordance with “1901 Law”. It is useful to note 

that the legal status of Association was also retained 

by Lille in 2004. 

See table on the following page. 

173



Legal status Disadvantages Advantages 

Public Interest 

Grouping 

Public Establishment 

of Cultural Cooperation 

Association 

in accordance 

with “1901 Law” 

174 

Cumbersome constitution and 

management process (presence 

of a government commissioner). 

Unattractive tax regime. 

Difficult to recruit personnel (principle 

of making personnel available through 

members except if special dispensation granted 

by the Commissioner). 

Legal persons governed by private 

law cannot be members. 

Cumbersome, restrictive process due to the 

application of public law, of a public accounting 

systems and the public market code (additional 

financial cost likely). 

An EPCC entails the management of a cultural 

public unit as part of delegated public service. 

However, all the conditions for public service are 

not yet in place. 

From a public financier’s viewpoint, 

limited guarantee of the supervision 

of funds. 

Legal status specific to projects 

with a fixed duration. 

Ability to receive donations and legacies. 

Suitable tool for the management 

of cultural facilities. 

Independent legal status. 

Simple charter process and a flexible 

management structure. 

An association is entitled to public 

subsidies once the general interest of its 

mission has been established. 



5.1.B 

The selected 

mode of 

governance 

Association 

in accordance 

with “1901 Law” 

Steering 

Committee 

Analyses the 

project and 

makes recommendations 

20 civil servants 

each representing 

1 member of the 

Association + 

qualified 

persons 

Administrative Board 

Defines and commits the resources 

needed to implement the project 

20 seats each representing 1 member 

(1 representative = 1 vote) 

Operations 

Team 

Designs and implements the project 

Administration, 

Finances, 

Sponsorship 

Event 

Production 

General 

Management 

Programming, 

European, National, 

and International 

Partnerships 

Promotion, 

Mobilisation, 

Tourism 

Evaluation and Supervisory Committee 

Audits the project in relation to economic 

impact, image and management 

175



5.1.C 

The Marseilles- 

Provence area 

From the start, Jean-Claude Gaudin, the Mayor of 

Marseilles, wanted to include all neighbouring towns 

and inter-communal structures in the project in order 

to form a coherent and complementary entity in terms 

of both the cultural and economic aspects. 

In 2008, all of these towns and inter-communal 

structures confirmed their involvement in the project, 

contributed financially to the Association’s budget, 

adopted the partnership charter and agreed to meet 

the corresponding commitments. 

Inter-communal working groups were formed in the 

associated towns in order to more easily mobilise the 

stakeholders and public concerned. 

176 

Main Tourist 

Destinations 

Marseilles-Provence 

2013 Area 

TGV Train Station 

International Airport 



5.1.D 

The Charter 

of the Association 

The Marseille-Provence 2013 Association covers a 

large region of 2.2 million inhabitants and the project 

requires the mobilisation and participation of various 

political bodies and that of economic, cultural, social, 

academic and pedagogical stakeholders. The Association’s 

by-laws determine the legal objectives and 

scope of these bodies. 

Nonetheless, it became necessary to support these 

texts with a charter, which would establish the general 

scope of action. 

The text is intended to define the principles of action 

and of good governance between members relevant 

to the project. It also makes provisions for the terms 

and conditions of participation, notably financial, 

based on which its members will support this substantial 

project, as well as the general principles linked 

to promotion and communication. 

History 

In the first half of 2007, the Association worked on 

the charter’s draft and attached an initial version to 

the pre-selection file. The text has subsequently been 

finalised with the assistance of all of the partners and 

their legal departments. 

The version appended to the attached questionnaire 

was submitted to each member’s decision-making 

body and was unanimously approved. 

Contents 

As the complete text is attached to the questionnaire, 

we will only highlight the most important points as 

regards the modalities of governance and financial 

commitments. 

The modalities 

of governance 

The modalities of governance strictly regulate relations 

between the Administrative Board (the decisionmaking 

and arbitrating body as regards the general 

scope of action) the Steering Committee (the co- 

ordinating structure between the Association and the 

civil servants of its various member institutions) and 

the Association’s own employees. Note that the Association 

“has complete freedom in terms of its artistic 

choices, including those relating to event programming, 

the selection of artistic projects and the recruitment of 

artistic teams when implementing artistic projects.” 

Financial commitments / 

the contribution 

of signatories 

Information relevant to the 2009-2013 budget, its 

distribution over time and the scale of distribution 

between the various local authorities, and to sponsorship 

were already addressed in the preliminary 

application file. 

The charter facilitates the validation of this information 

and its submission to the respective decisionmaking 

bodies for approval. 

The charter clarifies certain elements concerning 

these commitments: 

– The budget only comprises new measures “without 

reducing already existing structural budgets and 

without valuation of the working order of equipment 

or of contributions in the form of services or 

expertise”; 

– The Association will manage all resources made 

available. With a few rare exceptions, funds cannot 

be allocated directly or exclusively to a specific 

event. 

If the application is successful, these elements will be 

detailed in a multipartite framework convention (as 

was the case for Lille in 2004) and in annual bipartite 

conventions between the Association and each of its 

partners, in accordance with French legislation. 

177

Chapter 5 




5.2 

Organisation 

178 



5.2.A 

The 

Administrative 

Board 

The Board is composed of elected members responsible 

for monitoring Marseille-Provence 2013 or of their 

official representatives within their respective 

structures. 

Decisions are taken based on the principle of majority 

rule as defined in the by-laws and on the basis that 

one representative = one vote. 

Current Composition 

The Administrative Board comprises the following 

institutions: 

Local community authorities 

– The Conseil Régional Provence-Alpes-Côte 

d’Azur 

– The Conseil Général des Bouches-du-Rhône 

– The City of Marseilles 

– The Marseilles-Provence Metropole 

– The Toulon Provence Méditerranée urban district 

– The Ouest Étang de Berre urban district represented 

by the City of Martigues 

– The Arles Crau Camargue Montagnette urban 

district, represented by the City of Arles 

– The Pays d’Aubagne et de l’Étoile urban district, 

represented by the City of Aubagne 

– The Agglopole Provence urban district, represented 

by the City of Salon-de-Provence 

– The Ouest Provence urban district, represented by 

the City of Istres 

– The City of Gardanne 

Public institutions 

– Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Euroméditerranée 

(The Public Office for Euro-Mediterranean 

Development) 

– The Marseilles Independent Port Authority 

Companies 

– The Marseilles-Provence Chamber of Commerce 

and Industry 

– The “Ambition Top 20” Business Club 

– The Marseilles-Provence airport 

Universities 

– The area’s four universities 

A partnership agreement was signed between the 

Association and Aix-en-Provence on one hand, and 

the Pays d’Aix Community on the other, which stipulates 

the conditions of commitment for the Pays 

d’Aix as an area associated with the bid. 

Membership may be widened 

If the application is successful, Marseille-Provence 

2013 will invite other financial investors to join the 

Association, first of whom will be the State via the 

Préfet and the Direction Régionale de l’Action 

Culturelle (Regional Authority for Cultural Action), 

and the European Union via the heads of permanent 

missions of the European Commission and European 

Parliament located in Marseilles. 

179



5.2.B 

The Steering 

Committee 

The Steering Committee is composed of civil servants 

from and nominated by each member institution of 

the Administrative Board, as well as by referral agents 

of the working groups and qualified personalities. 

The Steering Committee will monitor the Association’s 

work and make recommendations to the Administrative 

Board concerning the Association’s general 

scope of activity. 

At the same time, we will also request the creation of 

a 2013 body under the responsibility of the Préfet to 

coordinate the calendar for large projects and the 

execution of major events in the public arena. 

Finally, from 2009 in each large district of the Marseilles- 

Provence region, a “2013 branch” will be launched 

in designated areas and managed by a delegate of the 

Association and a representative of the local authorities. 

This branch will serve as an interface between 

the project and the relevant services and 

stakeholders. 

180 

5.2.C 

The Operations 

Team 

The Association’s salaried team will be responsible 

for the project’s implementation, both in terms of 

artistic design and direction as well as event co- 

ordination and production. 

Team structure 

Bernard Latarjet, the Managing Director, will be 

responsible for the project in general, including areas 

related to artistic aspects. 

After analysing the organisation of the teams of other 

European Capitals of Culture, we have opted for an 

organisational system that combines: 

– A centralised organisational structure based on 

segment of activity (event programming, administration, 

finance, promotion, communications, 

technical aspects, etc.); 

– The efficiency of an organisation structured along 

major project sections (living art, exhibitions, festivals, 

audio-visual elements, etc.). 

An analysis of the schedule to be implemented reveals 

a reasonable balance between projects undertaken by 

the region’s operators and those that will be directly 

produced and executed by the Association. It will 

therefore be necessary to have a strong management 

team with an overall vision of each key operational 

section to coordinate all partners on the one hand, 

and fairly autonomous and highly specialised project 

teams for event productions on the other. 

Furthermore, this combined structure also allows: 

– The possibility, for some missions, of having a single 

representative who interacts with all partners or 

external agents. A sole technical or financial representative 

for local authorities: the technical or 

administrative directorate will remain the permanent 



representative, will centralise information and 

approve all operations; 

– To guarantee budgetary and financial control of the 

commitments undertaken. The independence 

granted to “project teams” necessarily entails procedures 

regarding expenses and the delegation of signatories, 

validating these procedures and implementing 

common systems. This supervision will avoid cost 

overruns and any financial difficulties, but will also 

reveal any budgetary niches or savings in order to 

put them to good use before the event ends. 

A relatively rapid escalation 

is expected in order to: 

– Organise the preview events from 2010, thereby 

requiring the early deployment of a team; 

– Support a regional policy that will require decentralised 

project managers to be stationed in each area, 

i.e., 3 or 4 people. 

The organisation’s core staff numbers * 

Year Staff (equivalent 

2009 25 

2010 29 

2011 34 

2012 34 

2013 40 

to full-time employment) 

* Teams assigned to project production and execution (technical aspects, 

reception, ticket sales, etc.) are not counted among these workers 

(allocated to the events and promotional budgets). 

The team’s offices 

During the two-year application process, the Association 

is based in the cultural centre of The Friche 

La Belle de Mai Arts Centre. If the Marseilles-Provence 

region’s bid is successful, the team will move to the 

Euro-Mediterranean harbour district close to the J1 

(several options have already been put forward for 

setting up in the 1st half of 2009). 

5.2.D 

The Evaluation 

and Supervisory 

Committee 

This committee’s role and composition is detailed in 

section 5.4, below. 

181

Chapter 5 




5.3 

The budget 

182 



We used 2008 to have the budgetary proposal presented in our preliminary application file 

analysed by certain Directors of European Capitals of Culture and by the cultural enginee- 

ring company, Kanju. We concluded that the sum of 98m was reasonable for a potential 

long-term project that was to be supported by a region of 2.2 million inhabitants. The 

necessary budgetary arbitration was therefore performed with this in mind, so that this 

budget might accurately reflect the project and facilitate the execution of all events des- 

cribed in the file. 

We also took advantage of this time to verify and boost the region’s ability to finance 

the project. 

183



General comments 

on the budget 

– Budgets for financial years 2007 ( 1.350m) and 

2008 (2.630m) are not included. 

– Likewise, the budget for 2014 was not taken into 

account: The project’s mission is to become a longterm 

venture. For information, the necessary budget 

for 2014, strictly within the context of bringing the 

operation to its conclusion, is 1.9m. 

– The Association’s charter stipulates that allocated 

subsidies comprise new measures only, with no reduction 

of existing structural budgets or valuation 

of the “working order” of cultural facilities or contributions 

in the form of services or expertise made by 

the various partners (promotion, security, cleaning 

and technical services, etc.). This financial statement 

reflects the project’s operational budget only. 

– The Association is not mandated to act as the 

contracting owner for large cultural facilities, thus 

the budget does not factor in investments. 

– And finally, the budget includes all taxes. 

184 

Comments on earnings 

– The breakdown between local authorities was 

confirmed during the charter’s validation. A 

breakdown specific to the 7.5% indicated in the 

table under “all other urban districts and cities” was 

suggested to the relevant partners and is in the 

process of being approved. 

– The lines in the table concerning “Europe” and 

“The State” have currently been combined for an 

amount corresponding to 15% of the budget, as 

neither can be approved or even negotiated before 

the jury’s decision is reached. Furthermore, Lille 

2004’s experience revealed that a certain amount 

of financing is mixed (FEDER Funds, Culture or 

Tourism). 

Work conducted with the Relais Culture Europe 

team, the Region and the Secretary General for 

Regional Affairs facilitated the analysis of options 

for European financing for each programme or in a 

transversal manner across the major strategies of 

the project. The consensus is that prospects for financing 

exceed initial estimates. 

– Corporate sponsorship has been one of the fundamental 

elements from the very beginning of this 

application process. Businesses are at the centre of 

the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” (Euro-Mediterranean 

workshops) and are directly involved, 

acting as ambassadors in the bid process, both in- 

ternationally and regionally, where working groups 

have been formed based on urban districts. 

The assumption that corporate financing represents 

a maximum of 15% of the budget was confirmed 

and the corporate sponsorship charter approved. 

A significant programme focusing on raising aware- 

ness, discussion and project participation was 

launched in 2008. Rather than asking companies 

to finance the 2008 budget, this year, we opted to 

establish 10 workshops in 10 companies. 

Comments on 

“Communications and 

mobilisation” budget 

These two lines of the table have been merged as they 

are so closely linked. 

This is the budget available within the Association 

to execute promotional and mobilisation operations 

without valuation of the contributions of the many 

media partnerships envisaged, or the structural communications 

budget of each of the Association’s 

partners or the tourism sector. In reality, the consolidated 

budget is therefore much higher. 

General Budget 2009-2013 

EXPENSES 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 TOTAL % 

Organisation 2 700 000 3 165 000 3 605 000 3 840 000 4 690 000 18 000 000 18.4 % 

Payroll 1 980 000 2 246 000 2 595 000 2 619 000 3 040 000 12 480 000 12.7 % 

Missions, receptions, fees, consultancies 400 000 410 000 370 000 430 000 500 000 2 110 000 2.2 % 

Monitoring and evaluation 20 000 30 000 50 000 80 000 220 000 400 000 0.4 % 

Overheads and interest paid 195 000 324 000 405 000 521 000 765 000 2 210 000 2.3 % 

Equipment and depreciation 105 000 155 000 185 000 190 000 165 000 800 000 0.8 % 

Communication and mobilisation 1 000 000 1 000 000 1 000 000 3 000 000 5 000 000 11 000 000 11.2 % 

Promotion and communications 600 000 600 000 600 000 1 600 000 2 600 000 6 000 000 6.1 % 

Mobilisation measures 400 000 400 000 400 000 1 400 000 2 400 000 5 000 000 5.1 % 

Events 1 300 000 2 495 000 6 555 000 19 800 000 38 850 000 69 000 000 70.4 % 

Concerning the “Ateliers de l'Euroméditerranée” 

(Euro-Mediterrenean Workshops) (Both Strategies 1 and 2) 

280 000 490 000 870 000 1 110 000 2 930 000 5 680 000 5.8 % 

Le Partage des Midis (Sharing the South - Strategy 1) 245 000 375 000 1 675 000 6 490 000 10 955 000 19 740 000 20.1 % 

La Cité Radieuse (The Radiant City - Strategy 2) 355 000 700 000 3 260 000 8 560 000 16 690 000 29 565 000 30.2 % 

Other Euro-Mediterrenean projects (Both Strategies) 300 000 700 000 250 000 1 590 000 4 175 000 7 015 000 7.2 % 

Infrastructure and use of 2013 locations / Joint costs (Both Strategies) 120 000 230 000 500 000 2 050 000 4 100 000 7 000 000 7.1 % 

GENERAL TOTAL 5 000 000 6 660 000 11 160 000 26 640 000 48 540 000 98 000 000 100.0 % 

EARNINGS 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 TOTAL % 

Europe and The State 312 500 748 250 1 674 000 3 996 000 7 969 250 14 700 000 15.0 % 

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region 625 000 832 500 1 395 000 3 330 000 6 067 500 12 250 000 12.5 % 

Bouches-du-Rhône Departement 625 000 832 500 1 395 000 3 330 000 6 067 500 12 250 000 12.5 % 

Marseilles Provence Métropole and the City of Marseilles 2 000 000 2 000 000 2 511 000 5 994 000 9 545 000 22 050 000 22.5 % 

Community of Pays d'Aix and the City of Aix-en-Provence 375 000 499 500 837 000 1 998 000 3 640 500 7 350 000 7.5 % 

Toulon Provence Méditerranée urban district and the City of Toulon 375 000 499 500 837 000 1 998 000 3 640 500 7 350 000 7.5 % 

All other urban districts and cities 375 000 499 500 837 000 1 998 000 3 640 500 7 350 000 7.5 % 

Business partners 312 500 748 250 1 674 000 3 996 000 7 969 250 14 700 000 15.0 % 

GENERAL TOTAL 5 000 000 6 660 000 11 160 000 26 640 000 48 540 000 98 000 000 100.0 % 

5 % 7 % 11 % 27 % 50 % 100 % 

185

Detailed budget covering “organisation” expenses for 2009-2013 

186 

2009 FTE 2010 FTE 2011 FTE 2012 FTE 2013 FTE TOTAL FTE 

PAYROLL COSTS 1 980 000 25 2 246 000 29 2 595 000 34 2 619 000 34 3 040 000 40 12 480 000 162 69 % 

MANAGEMENT TEAM 

Current team 640 000 6 652 800 6 665 856 6 679 173 6 692 757 6 3 330 586 30 

Project Managers 280 000 4 285 600 4 291 312 4 297 138 4 303 081 4 1 457 131 20 

Territorial Project Managers 210 000 3 214 200 3 218 484 3 222 854 3 227 311 3 1 092 848 15 

Head of Corporate Sponsorship 70 000 1 71 400 1 72 828 1 74 285 1 75 770 1 364 283 5 

Head of Tourism-Related Communications 70 000 1 71 400 1 72 828 1 74 285 1 75 770 1 364 283 5 

Technical Manager 70 000 1 71 400 1 72 828 1 74 285 1 75 770 1 364 283 5 

Production Manager 70 000 1 71 400 1 72 828 1 74 285 1 75 770 1 364 283 5 

OPERATIONS TEAMS (TEMPORARY WORK CONTRACT) 

Communications 

Head of Communications-Tourism 27 030 0.5 55 141 1 56 244 1 57 369 1 195 784 3.5 

Webmaster 27 030 0.5 55 141 1 56 244 1 57 369 1 195 784 3.5 

Press Officer 35 700 0.5 72 828 1 74 285 1 75 770 1 258 583 3.5 

Administration Production 

Administration Manager 53 550 0.8 72 828 1 74 285 1 75 770 1 276 433 3.8 

Production Manager 40 545 0.8 55 141 1 56 244 1 57 369 1 209 299 3.8 

Head of Corporate Sponsorship 40 545 0.8 55 141 1 56 244 1 57 369 1 209 299 3.8 

Technical 

Production Assistants 40 545 0.8 55 141 1 56 244 1 108 120 2 260 050 4.8 

Assistants 135 000 3 183 600 4 234 090 5 238 772 5 243 547 5 1 035 009 22 

Receptionist, logistics, 

general workers 

67 500 1.5 91 800 2 93 636 2 95 509 2 194 838 4 543 283 11.5 

Accounting 45 000 1 45 900 1 93 636 2 95 509 2 243 547 5 523 592 11 

TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES; TRAINEE ALLOWANCES 

Temporary employment - executives 78 000 1 40 576 0.5 27 591 0.3 42 215 0.5 188 382 2.3 

Temporary employment - non-executives 80 000 1.7 24 480 0.5 24 970 0.5 16 979 0.3 34 638 0.7 181 067 3.7 

Trainees 5 000 8 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 58 000 

TAXES AND OTHER PAYMENTS 

INCLUDED ON THE PAYROLL 

159 500 189 075 209 767 203 548 245 849 1 007 739 

Comments on 

“Organisation” Budget 

2009 FTE 2010 FTE 2011 FTE 2012 FTE 2013 FTE TOTAL FTE 

MISSIONS, RECEPTIONS, FEES 400 000 410 000 370 000 430 000 500 000 2 110 000 12 % 

Missions-Receptions 

Accommodation-invitations 60 000 70 000 80 000 120 000 150 000 480 000 

Transportation and travel expenses 60 000 70 000 80 000 120 000 150 000 480 000 

Fees 

Fees 

(legal, accounting, management) 120 000 120 000 120 000 120 000 150 000 630 000 

Artistic consultancy missions 160 000 150 000 90 000 70 000 50 000 520 000 

MONITORING AND EVALUATION 20 000 30 000 50 000 80 000 220 000 400 000 2 % 

Monitoring and Evaluation 20 000 30 000 50 000 80 000 220 000 400 000 

OVERHEADS AND INTEREST PAID 195 000 324 000 405 000 521 000 765 000 2 210 000 12 % 

Overheads 145 000 254 000 325 000 411 000 565 000 1 700 000 

Equipment rental 20 000 30 000 30 000 40 000 50 000 170 000 

Interest paid 30 000 40 000 50 000 70 000 150 000 340 000 

EQUIPMENT AND DEPRECIATION 105 000 155 000 185 000 190 000 165 000 800 000 4 % 

Equipment for current year 55 000 75 000 95 000 90 000 55 000 370 000 

Provisions for depreciation 

for past financial years 

50 000 80 000 90 000 100 000 110 000 430 000 

TOTAL 2 700 000 25 3 165 000 29 3 605 000 34 3 840 000 34 4 690 000 40 18 000 000 162 100 % 

% annual distribution 15 % 18 % 20 % 21 % 26 % 100 % 

At 18%, the relative burden of this budget is considerably 

higher than that of Lille 2004 (10%) or the 

average for previous European Capitals of Culture 

(14%). This reflects the aforementioned desire to put 

a large team in place very rapidly and to make this a 

long-term venture. It also responds to the request for 

transparency of action: all operational items linked 

to promotional activities or the projects have been 

included in this budget in order to avoid “bleeding” 

the communications and events budgets, as is often 

the case. 

FTE = Equivalent Full Time Employement 

187

Chapter 5 




5.4 

Evaluation 

and management- 

monitoring tools 

188 



The Palmer Report notes that European Capitals of 

Culture did not plan for monitoring and assessment 

systems early enough; work often began late, was not 

linked to planning and there was rarely any independent 

assessment. 

Conscious of the importance of monitoring and 

evaluation procedures and based on the recommendation 

of this report, in 2007, we regrouped several 

institutions within the area implicated in the bid. 

This working group comprised notably the urban 

planning agencies of Marseilles (AGAM) and Toulon 

(AUDAT), the Resource and Development Centre 

for the Performing Arts of Provence-Alpes-Côte 

d’Azur (ARCADE), and the Resource Centre of the 

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Marseilles- 

Provence. The Resource Centre of the Chamber of 

Commerce and Industry has already conducted various 

studies on the impact of cultural and sporting events 

in the region, including the Cézanne en Provence 

exhibition in 2006 and the Rugby World Cup in 

Marseilles in 2007. 

Furthermore, we gathered information on the work 

carried out by each of the European Capitals of Culture 

during several trips. In April, Marseille-Provence 

2013 invited Ms. Beatriz Garcia, Director of Impacts 

08 – The Liverpool Model, and Mr. Franco Bianchini, 

Director of Research at the University of Leeds: we 

worked together to devise the specific supervisory and 

assessment procedure to be implemented for Marseille- 

Provence 2013. 

Here are various principles of the system that Marseille- 

Provence 2013 will put in place: 

Independence and professionalism 

In light of the discussions held, we deem it important 

to contract a university team to coordinate monitoring 

and evaluation procedures in order to meet these two 

criteria. This team will collaborate with our various 

partners in order to conduct quantitative and qualitative 

studies. It will take the initiative in creating a 

network of university faculties which have worked 

on these questions for other European Capitals of 

Culture and collate the various studies and methodologies 

used up to this time. 

A review committee will be formed and overseen by 

the university team. It will comprise the Chamber of 

Commerce and Industry, urban planning agencies, 

ARCADE, Agence Régionale du Patrimoine (Regional 

Agency for Heritage), Regional Tourism 

Committee, the Departmental Tourism Committee, 

INSEE (National Institute for Statistics and Economic 

Studies) and Marseille-Provence 2013. 

Three objectives 

1.To organise the area’s various existing databases on 

culture, tourism, the economy and social aspects. 

2.Completely evaluate the effects (economy and 

tourism, culture, image and reputation, and the environment) 

using specific methodologies producing 

results that must be organised into a hierarchy. 

3.Introduce monitoring indicators from 2010 in two 

important areas: 

– The event’s impact in terms of economic knockon 

effects, image and reputation based on criteria 

determining the appeal of the area; 

– The effects in terms of social ties, access to culture 

and sustainable development corresponding to the 

goals of the European Capitals of Culture. 

A sizeable sum was reserved within the Association’s 

“organisation” budget for this task. It will be complemented 

by other regional sources of financing. 

All data will be made available to the “supervisory 

and advisory panel”, which is to be created by the EU. 

A representative will be designated by the Association 

to act as a mediator. 

Monitoring management 

As mentioned in this Chapter, the project will be 

borne by a single entity, the Marseille-Provence 2013 

Association, which was specifically created for this 

purpose. Thus, all financial data can be centralised 

while ensuring the consistency of expenses and simplifying 

the project’s financial management. 

Opting for an organisational system featuring operational 

management teams will ensure more effective 

monitoring of expenses. In addition, for optimum 

management efficiency, we will apply some additional 

regulations that will be detailed in a procedural manual 

and in the internal regulations. 

In addition to the professionalism of management 

teams, monitoring by the Administrative Board and 

mandatory management rules and regulations (public 

auditing and chartered accountants), a firm of external 

auditors will also be contracted to devise a management 

chart for the 2009-2013 period, relative to all major 

2013 projects, and to carry out periodic evaluation. 

189

Chapter 5 




5.5 

Strategy concerning 

citizen mobilisation, 

promotion, 


and tourism 

development 


190 



5.5.A 

Belief confirmed 

In the first application file, we put forward an 

original approach based on the following observation: 

communication and culture often find it 

difficult to tread the same line, whether it is to 

perceive, with originality, an artistic approach or 

to contribute to the widening of audiences. Contrary 

to the rules of the free market economy and marketing, 

art and culture are driven more by offer 

than demand. The success of a cultural event results 

from a wide range of actions within which the 

involvement of all the participants plays a greater 

role than the press, public relations or advertising. 

Marseilles Capital of Culture is based on the belief 

that using communication as the mere transmission 

of messages to a set audience is not only a limited 

approach, but is actually responsible for some of 

the failures of the democratisation of culture. 

Communicating initially meant “having a part, 

sharing”, and in everyday language it meant for a 

long time “to participate in something.” Communication 

thus initially indicated a sharing and a “way 

of being together.” 

Communication must therefore be devised as a cultural 

project in itself, with the following objectives: 

– to foster the union between people and ideas; 

– to generate participative approaches, forms of 

creativity that are encouraged through practice; 

– to get the artists themselves to alter their own relationship 

to communication by perceiving it, first of 

all, as a space for sharing rather than one devoted 

to promotional use; 

– to try to reach the greatest possible number of people 

and notably those who are sometimes called “nonaudiences.” 

This widening is a crucial issue when 

faced with the power of entertainment industries. 

Therefore in 2008, we decided to launch a series of 

projects and mobilisation drives in the area implicated 

in the bid (see Chap. 4) rather than finance large 

promotional campaigns or short-term events. Communications 

tools put in place helped to emphasise 

these actions thanks to adaptable support structures, 

such as Blog 2.013, which developed each project on 

the bid’s website in an original way. 

The in-depth work being conducted has reinforced 

our desire to implement a strategy that closely associates 

mobilisation and communications. The types 

of organisation chosen for the teams from 2009 reflect 

this goal, with a management structure that will 

coordinate mobilisation, promotion, public relations, 

the press, and even protocol and tourism. Consequently, 

the two budget items relating to mobilisation 

and communications, have been merged. 

To boost our strategy, at the beginning of 2009, we 

will take the time to launch a comparative study of 

past and current promotional strategies introduced 

by European Capitals of Culture. The many contacts 

we have made with teams that we have met have 

reinforced our conviction of the exceptional nature 

of this type of operation. This has encouraged us to 

take advantage of the wealth of mobilisation and 

promotional measures designed by other Capitals. 

191



5.5.B 

The strategy’s 

key points 

Adaptable and reactive 

comunications tools 

All of the representatives of the European Capitals 

of Culture with whom we interacted stressed the time 

factor as well as the risk of saturation, not only in 

relation to the four years of preparation, but to the 

year of culture itself: “Enthusiasm is a rare quality.” 

We will devise the most reactive communications 

tools possible. 

192 

Three examples: 

The programme: Of course, we are putting together 

an attractive programme more than two years in 

advance, so that tourist-based prospecting can be 

conducted at key international trade fairs. However, 

this will not be the benchmark document for the 

general public as it will contain too much information 

and will become obsolete very quickly. Dividing the 

programme into four seasons means that events will 

be announced progressively and we have opted for 

simple and reactive promotional tools (newsletters, 

weekly or weekend programmes, etc.). In the same 

vein, we believe that the season’s opening event will 

be of paramount importance in terms of mobilisation 

and national and international renown. We will 

therefore propose promotional procedures specific to 

that event. 

Graphic identity: Throughout 2008, the graphic 

identity has changed with various versions being 

produced by the agency, Atalante – which designed 

the logo – as well as by artists and graphical artists 

who have often re-interpreted it. If Marseilles- 

Provence’s application is successful, the applicant’s 

logo (used by a maximum number of partners in a 

show of support) will have to be transformed into the 

logo of a European Capital of Culture, with greater 

restrictions placed on its use as a label. Atalante has 

already designed a new, more streamlined and distinct 

version, which will be revealed as soon as an official 

announcement is made. 

2.013 medialab: A cultural and participative media 

project that expands on the 2.013 Blog launched 

in 2008. Every day of 2013, this new medium, co- 

produced by local media (written press and audiovisual 

media) artists, cultural structures and inhabitants will 

live and promote the Cultural Capital. The principal 

medium will be the web, but content gathered on this 

multimedia platform will be adaptable to the press, 

TV or public events. Media 2.013 will also be the 

home base for journalists in residence (one residence 

per month) and will therefore be connected to national 

and international media, whether aimed at the general 

public or alternatives. 

To implement these reactive communications tools, 

we opted for an integrated team of graphic artists and 

webmasters. Public relations or graphics agencies will 

also be consulted for strategic designs, graphics creation 

or in an advisory capacity. 



A geographically 

targeted strategy 

We have identified five major concentric circles of 

action: 

– The area implicated in the bid; 

– The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, which, 

strictly speaking, is outside the Marseilles- 

Provence 2013 territory, will also be associated with 

the joint projects being discussed (Avignon, Nice, 

Monaco, etc.); 

– The “Greater South-East” area, which includes 

Montpellier, Nîmes and even Lyons, thanks to the 

TGV high-speed train network: this is Marseilles- 

Provence’s natural trading area, culturally speaking, 

for major events less than 2 hours away by train; 

– The rest of France; 

– International. 

For each of these circles, a specific strategy will be 

applied. The nearer we get to the Marseilles-Provence 

region, the greater the mobilisation effort will be. The 

further away we move, the greater the emphasis that 

will be placed on classic means of communication 

(press conferences, a presence at key events and important 

transportation networks), closely associated 

with the tourism development strategy. 

A policy featuring relay 

points and ambassadors 

We requested the assistance of the Lille 2004 team, 

who coordinated 18,000 ambassadors, with the identification 

of relay points in the region and throughout 

Europe, as well as with the missions to be entrusted 

to them. A 2013 ambassadors’ programme will begin 

in 2009. The network of twinned cities will contribute 

and we will sign agreements with each of the European 

Capitals of Culture to raise awareness among their 

citizens of the Marseille-Provence 2013 project. 

A considerable effort 

made to welcome and 

inform the public 

– Signposting throughout the region; 

– Terrestrial and maritime shuttle service for the 

general public; 

– 2013 information booths and interactive terminals 

at each of the region’s strategic points (young architects 

and designers competition launched in 2009); 

– A ticketing network system and weekend pass 

system; 

– A training and information programme designed 

for retailers, hoteliers, taxi and public transportation 

drivers. 

193



5.5.C 

A tourism 

development 

policy linked to 


It is often difficult for the cultural and tourism 

segments to synchronise their strategies and programmes. 

We wanted to take advantage of 2013 to 

bring them together for more meaningful discussions, 

given that they will be completely interdependent. 

A “Tourism Development Plan for 2008-2015” 

was launched in March 2007 by the sector’s stakeholders 

with the European Capital of Culture in 

mind. It contains a considerable section on informing 

and hosting the public. 

The plan outlines an overall strategy and provides 

significant support to the 2013 project since it boosts 

the tourism product way in advance of that date. 

The strategy contains four elements: 

194 

A plan to develop hotels 

and transportation 

infrastructure 

Hotels 

Four large hotels have just opened or are about to 

open: 

– New Hotel Pharo: a 4-star facility, with over 100 rooms, 

suites and conference rooms; 

– Radisson Vieux-Port Hotel: 4 stars, 189 rooms, suites 

and conference rooms; 

– Villa Massalia: 4 stars, 140 rooms, suites and meeting 

and conference rooms; 

– Marriott Hotel: 4 stars, 210 rooms on the Euromed 

perimeter. 

Additional hotels will be built by 2013: 

– Novotel, îlot Dubois: 140 rooms close to the new 

Saint Charles train station 

– Hôtel Parc Chanot: 300 rooms 

– Hôtel Intercontinental de l’Hôtel Dieu: 4 stars, 

194 rooms 

– Hôtel Express by Hollyday: 121 rooms 

– Hôtel Novotel: 140 rooms 

– Suite Hôtel Euro-Med: 127 rooms 

– Hôtel Ibis: 192 rooms 

Business and leisure facilities: Euromed Center and 

the Palais de la Glace et de la Glisse (ice-skating rink). 

Transportation infrastructure 

– Construction of the Vitrolles train station / Marseilles-Provence 

airport: Opening scheduled for the 

end of 2008. 2 minutes away from the airport thanks 

to a rapid shuttle system; this will increase accessibility 

to the region’s cities, with 42 trains to be put in 

service every day in 2009. It will also shorten the 

arrival time (20 minutes to Marseilles city centre); 

– Renovation of the Saint Charles train station and 

construction of a new bus terminal: An immense 

glass hall was built as an extension to the historic 

building. Shops, cafés, restaurants and a Tourist 

Office have brought life to the city. Parking capacity 

has doubled to 800 spaces. 

– Construction of a train station on the Euro- 

Mediterranean periphery: The Arenc train station, 

scheduled to open in 2009-2010, will play a unique 

role at the heart of the Euro-Mediterranean zone, 

the port, reachable from the airport by train, and 

the Côte-Bleue, accessible by tram, the underground 

and coach from Aix-en-Provence. 

– Rail and road transport throughout the region: 

The Metropolitan railway network complemented 

by a departmental network of coaches circulates on 

five internal routes: Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, 

Manosque / Marseilles, Aubagne, Toulon / Marseilles- 

Euro-Mediterranean, Airport, Miramas, Arles / 

Salon, Aix-en-Provence, Martigues Airport and 

Fos-sur-Mer. Improvement and expansion are underway, 

in particular, the Aix-en-Provence line to the 

“nerve centres” of the city is being extended. 



– Transportation in Marseilles: Two tramway lines 

were put in service in June 2007. The planned extension 

of lines (underground and tramway), the 

use of a maritime shuttle service, the expansion of 

“bicycle lanes” in Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence 

as well as the development of car-sharing in 2007 

will significantly improve travel and accessibility 

to the city centre and is part of a policy of long-term 

development. 

– Projects for 2013: complementary transportation 

systems: Shuttle service by clean vehicles and a 

significant increase in maritime shuttle services 

between event locations and cultural sites (as was 

the case in Aix-en-Provence for the year of Cézanne); 

increase in the number of small tourist trains 

and “hop on-hop off” tours between tourist sites; 

more electric bicycles available for hire; bicycle 

rickshaws in coastal regions; young or retired people 

paid a fee by a transportation company to transport 

and guide tourists around in their own cars. 

The development 

of the business 

tourism segment 

Business tourism continues throughout the year and 

perfectly complements other forms of individual 

tourism, which it often encourages. The project’s 

location in the Euro-Mediterranean zone provides 

the perfect opportunity for development, particularly 

regarding high-tech companies (micro-electronics, 

bio-medical engineering, cancerology and immunology), 

which have a large presence in the area. In 

2006, a regional think tank was formed as part of the 

Regional Zones for Innovation and Economic Development 

(PRIDES). 

Cruise tourism 

The Mediterranean Sea is the world’s premier tourist 

destination with over 200 million visitors per year. 

Cruise tourism to this area has risen significantly (10% 

per year). The Port of Marseilles is an inevitable hub 

and plans for major port facilities are at the heart of 

the Euro-Mediterranean project, and should considerably 

increase traffic by 2013. 

Eco-tourism 

The uniqueness of Marseilles-Provence’s natural sites 

is a big plus for the development of quality ecotourism. 

The main advantages are: 

– The approved creation of the Calanques National 

Park in 2011: it will be the world’s second peri-urban 

national park after that in Sydney, Australia; 

– Following on from the Côte Bleue marine park and 

the sub-aquatic national park in Port Cros, the 

protection of maritime sites has been extended by 

the RECIF Prado coral reef protection operation, 

France’s most ambitious project to create artificial 

reefs (30,000 m 3 ). It will extend the protected 

marine zone; 

– The acquisition of 10,000 hectares by the Conservatoire 

du Littoral (Coastal Protection Agency); 

– The Sainte Victoire Mountain, which has been 

classified as one of France’s most important sites. 

– The Camargue, classified as a regional park: the 

Marais du Vigueirat, with 15 km of trails featuring 

an observation platform, piers, and circuits to be 

discovered on foot or by horse-drawn carriage. These 

sites are associated with the World Wide Fund for 

Nature (France), the coastal protection agency and 

the community of Arles. They are the technical 

organisers of the European programme, “Life 

Promesse”. 

A trade fair entitled ECORISMO has been created. 

Unique in Europe, it is a professional forum for exchange 

on eco-products and environmental solutions 

specific to various activities related to hotels, camping 

sites, the food service industry and tourism. 

195

200 

202 

206 

6.1 

6.2 

6.3 

Handicaps and weaknesses 

Weaknesses with promising 

potential 

How the European Capital of 

Culture will help correct 

Marseilles’ weaknesses 

Chapter 6 

How would its 

selection as ‘Capital’ 

help Marseilles- 

Provence become 

a true European 

cultural metropolis?

Chapter 6 How would its selection 

as “Capital” help Marseilles-Provence become 

a true European cultural metropolis? 

Why Marseilles? 

The first chapter of the pre-selection report was devoted to this question. After assessing 

the area’s strengths and weaknesses, “seven reasons” were identified in favour of 

Marseilles-Provence. 

The last two years of work have enabled us to carry out an objective evaluation of the 

metropolis’s weaknesses and shortcomings in relation to its cultural and European ambitions. 

It has also helped us to elaborate the European Capital of Culture project, which will help 

make up for shortcomings, eliminate handicaps, develop strengths and overcome weaknesses, 

considering the exceptional potential of the Marseilles area. 

The effort that has already been channelled into preparing the bid, uniting stakeholders 

behind a collaborative project, establishing an appropriate mode of collective governance, 

implementing the first preview projects, and obtaining the necessary commitments for 

funding has provided an opportunity to demonstrate our motivation and capacity for 

mobilisation, decision-making, and joint actions. 

199

Chapter 6: How would 

its selection as “Capital” 

help Marseilles-Provence 

become a true European 

cultural metropolis? 

6.1 

Handicaps 

and weaknesses 




Economic shortcomings 

Marseilles is still not part of the “Top 20” European 

metropolises, currently ranking 23rd. Following a long 

period of decline, it began to make a comeback towards 

the end of the 1990s, and continues to make important 

progress each year. However, its unemployment rate 

remains above the national average (13% compared 

to 8%). The number of high-skilled jobs is still less than 

that of other European cities of similar size. It also has 

less financial potential than other cities of its size. 

Urban shortcomings 

Despite the considerable effort that has been made, 

especially since the creation in 1995 of the Euro- 

Mediterranean Public Development Agency (l’Établissement 

Public d’Aménagement Euroméditerranée), 

which has spearheaded the largest urban renewal 

operation in Europe, there is still a lot of work to be 

done in certain districts, in both the city centre and 

outskirts, to build new housing and develop stable 

employment (in the most underprivileged districts, 

unemployment among youths aged 18-25 has reached 

40%). Certain services must be improved, especially 

with regard to urban cleanliness, public transport and 

nightlife in the city centre. 

European shortcomings 

One paradox stands out, among several others, in 

terms of the territory implicated in the bid. 

On the one hand, the people of Marseilles “don’t feel” 

European; a higher proportion of them voted against the 

Constitutional referendum than the rest of France. 

On the other hand, Marseilles and the Provence- 

Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region: 

– Host a large number of European and Euro- 

Mediterranean organisations (see Report 1, p. 35), 

– Are the single managing authority or national 

coordinator of several EU programmes, 

– Are model participants in certain European programmes 

(“Youth in Action” for example), 

– Mobilise European funds for their development 

(between 2000 and 2006, 23 cultural projects 

benefited from European grants via 14 different 

grant programmes). 

Marseilles-Provence thus has a number of community 

policies, but its residents have little consciousness of 

being, or desire to be, “European and Mediterranean.” 

Shortcomings in good 

governance 

Marseilles-Provence is not used to leading large 

projects on an international scale. Cooperation 

between local authorities is impeded by strong wealth 

disparities and a history of traditional rivalries independent 

of political factions. 

Cultural shortcomings 

Three critiques are most often formulated by those 

professionally responsible for culture, as much in 

Marseilles itself as elsewhere. 

Firstly, energy, resources, institutions and events are 

vastly dispersed in Marseilles, while cultural figures 

and projects are relatively isolated. The advantage of 

this dispersion is that it ensures remarkable cultural 

irrigation of the area, activities that are strongly rooted 

in districts, and proximity between these activities 

and the public. Inconveniences include a lack of facilities 

that are big enough to project themselves 

nationally or internationally. 

Secondly, Marseilles does not have enough annual, 

internationally recognised artistic events which attract 

both French and foreign artists and professionals, 

while promoting the cultural development and 

attractiveness on a scale equal to the city’s ambitions. 

Such events exist in its exurbs (Aix-en-Provence, 

Arles, La Roque d’Antheron). Some exist in Marseilles 

but are much too small or need to be developed. 

Thirdly, Marseilles is often admonished for its failure 

to produce works of international repute. In other 

words, for not being a European centre of creativity 

and artistic exploration. 

200 201






6.2 

Weaknesses 

with promising potential 




The following highlights key points from the descriptions 

provided in Chapter 1 of Report 1: 

Geographical potential 

Strategically located in the middle of the Latin Arc that 

unites metropolises along the Northern bank of the 

Mediterranean, Marseilles-Provence plays an essential 

role in supporting and developing Southern Europe. 

By building a multimodal transport terminal, it has 

turned itself into an international transportation hub. 

– With the opening of its new, low-cost MP2 terminal, 

the Marseilles-Provence international airport now 

has direct routes to 90 destinations in 30 countries. 

– The Marseilles Independent Port Authority has 

connections with more than 200 ports worldwide, 

transporting 2 million passengers every year. 

– 22 million passengers pass through the Aix-en-Provence 

and Marseilles high-speed train stations each year. 

– Three motorways linking Spain and Italy to Northern 

Europe intersect in Marseilles. 

Unrivalled destinations and cultural heritage sites – 

from the Rade de Toulon to the Port-Saint-Louis-de- 

Rhone – abound: cliffs, coves, beaches and the only 

bay in Marseilles, which boasts 57 km of coastline. 

The Camargue (river delta), the Crau, the Alpilles 

and the Sainte Victoire Mountain provide a stunning 

backdrop to Provence’s exceptional landscapes. 

Cultural potential 

Marseilles is the most cosmopolitan European city. 

Some thirty ethnic groups have settled and coexist 

here. Generous and hospitable for the last 20 centuries, 

it is an intercultural city par excellence. 

Offering a multitude of experiences, Marseilles is a 

privileged testing ground of cultural integration at 

a time when issues related to immigration are increasingly 

central to European construction. 

Cultural institutions have been forming partnerships 

and encouraging exchanges with their European and 

Mediterranean counterparts for a long time. They 

know how to adhere to EU priority policies and obtain 

corresponding financial support. 

Artistic and cultural life is characterised by a number 

of activities dispersed throughout the region, a balanced 

combination of elite and popular cultural forms, 

consideration for contemporary writing, an abundance 

of groundbreaking actions to promote cultural democracy 

and reaching out to new audiences (particularly 

in schools and associations, whose enthusiasm and 

quality stand out nationally). 

202 203




Economic and urban potential 

Marseilles-Provence’s development strategy outlined 

in its “Schéma de Cohérence Territoriale” – SCOT 

for 2016 is based on the knowledge and creation 

economies, in line with the Lisbon Agreements. 

Several competitiveness clusters are currently being 

created around or near universities, research institutes 

and top-ranking businesses in France. 

The urban renewal project led by the Établissement 

Public Euroméditerranée has resulted in the construction 

of 200,000 m 2 of new office space and the creation 

of 16,000 jobs. The government has just decided to 

expand and double the size of the original zone 

(400 ha). 

204 

International potential 

As attested by Marseilles’ and the Provence-Alpes- 

Côte d’Azur Region’s European roles and activities 

(see Chap. 1/Report 1) and their 2008 programme 

for European activities described in Chapter 2 above, 

the international character of activities and the budgets 

allocated to them have grown considerably over the 

past five years and are picking up speed. This bid is a 

telling example. 

Human potential 

The two years spent preparing the European Capital 

project have demonstrated how political, economic, 

cultural, academic and scientific groups are determined 

to work together and make cultural investment a key 

priority for development throughout the territory, as 

well as for promoting its attractiveness and renown. By 

2002, Marseilles had already won a “Eurocities Award” 

for its urban renewal cultural projects related to the 

theme “Culture: the driving force for cities.” 

They have also shown just how strong the associative 

fabric is throughout the region and its exceptional 

potential to integrate people into the community. 

Above all, these past two years have demonstrated 

a capacity to mobilise, unite and work together not 

only to conceive a common project and devote the 

time needed for reflection, debate and design, but 

also to implement various tangible elements that 

prefigure the future Capital, regardless of the final 

selection. In this regard, the commitment made by 

heads of cultural institutions, businesses and associations 

was exemplary. This is the reason why, as 

described above, the first “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” 

were able to be initiated in 2008.






6.3 

How the European 

Capital of Culture will 

help correct 

Marseilles’ weaknesses 




Making up for 

economic shortcomings 

The Marseilles-Provence bid is fully compatible with 

the previously mentioned “Schéma de Cohérence 

Territoriale” – SCOT 2006-2016, which privileges 

an economy based on innovation and creation. 

It develops new, mixed economic models for cultural 

production incorporating businesses, not only for their 

direct financial support, but also for their long-term 

commitment to creating studios for the “Ateliers de 

l’Euroméditerranée” project. 

It transforms the legal status and modus operandi of certain 

major cultural institutions, like the Friche La Belle de 

Mai Arts Centre (now operating as an SCIC) and incorporates 

the public sector, cultural industries and 

commercial activities that create wealth and jobs. 

Its project themes focus on addressing European 

cultural challenges that have a direct impact on socioeconomic 

development (integration of immigrants, 

training and education, gender equality, management 

of water resources, etc.). 

More specifically, it brings together artists and academics 

to create and reflect on these challenges following 

the example of the RAMSES 2 research project, which 

is supported by Europe and whose programmes inspired 

diverse proposals for the bid including encounters and 

debates such as the “economy and culture” symposium, 

which will take place in 2013 with preparations beginning 

in 2009. 

It proposes recurring international events whose aims 

are to increase the territory’s attractiveness and its 

capacity to welcome businesses, jobs and upper-level 

management. 

It provides Marseilles-Provence with a sustainable 

training and creation centre via the “Ateliers de 

l’Euroméditerranée”. 

Making up for 

urban shortcomings 

The Marseilles-Provence bid has programmed cultural 

investments that are compatible with the area’s urban 

renewal and sustainable development strategy. 

It participates in the cultural reconversion of certain 

central spaces at the Port of Marseilles: 

– The former J1 hangar, 

– The J4 unit where the new CRM (Regional Mediterranean 

Centre) and the new MuCEM (Museum 

of European and Mediterranean Civilisations) 

buildings are being built. 

It promotes cultural renovation in the quays district: 

– Transforming the Silo into a concert hall, 

– Installing the new Regional Contemporary Art 

Fund (FR AC), 

– Expanding cultural activities at the former docks 

and the Docks des Suds, 

– Opening the Euromed Centre’s cinematographic 

centre. 

It is supporting renovation projects located on former 

industrial sites: 

– The future “Street Arts Academy” in the Northern 

district, whose first stone was laid in late 2007, 

– The “SNCF Workshops” in Arles that will develop 

significantly over the forthcoming years, 

– The “Friche La Belle de Mai Arts Centre” that has 

recently adopted the cultural plan and project for 

a new area of renovation, 

– The “Gare Franche” located in a former factory in 

the Northern district, which recently opened its 

doors to new creative, educational and project activities 

in the city (“an art lab in the city”). 

The bid proposes a series of major projects for artistic 

creation in the public spaces of urban renewal areas 

(see The “Digue du Large”, “Via Marseilles” and “New 

Commissioners” programmes). 

It calls for a cultural revival project in city centres 

(see the “One Thousand and One Nights” programme 

in Strategy 2). 

206 207




In close connection with the policies driven by the 

Bouches-du-Rhône Conseil Général and local authorities, 

it proposes local cultural development projects 

that favour the itinerancy and mobility of exhibitions 

and shows, associations’ activities, and artistic workshops 

in schools (see Themes 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the 

project’s Strategy 2). 

Making up for European 

shortcomings 

The Marseilles-Provence bid is entirely based on the 

territory’s desire to play a part in building a creative 

Europe (see Chap. 2). 

It is based on a European, cultural, geopolitical app- 

roach that supports the Barcelona Process and which 

consists in creating in Marseilles-Provence a lasting 

platform for collaboration, exchange, training and 

production for European creators and creators from 

other neighbouring Mediterranean countries. 

It sets the stage for a permanent and sustainable presence 

of European and Mediterranean artists in the area. 

It supports and exploits two new major cultural institutions 

devoted to Europe and the Mediterranean: 

the MuCEM and the CRM. 

Each of its projects possesses a Euro-Mediterranean 

208 

dimension, whether it is the theme, its partners, the 

origin of the artists on exhibition, or most often, a 

mix of these three criteria. 

It strives to give its projects the most tangible, popular 

and visible forms possible, so that the reality of Europe 

in terms of both its diversity and unity become a tangible 

experience for the people of Marseilles-Provence. 

It multiplies the number of workshops that allow 

citizens to participate in future Capital projects whose 

themes are directly linked to European ambitions and 

which are already being put in place with other groups 

of citizens throughout Europe and the Mediterranean 

(see Theme 4 of Strategy 2 and Chapter 4). 

It solicits and will continue to solicit European funding, 

in connection with the new agenda (follow-up on 

the Barcelona Process, replacement of the IEPV with 

the European Neighbourhood Policy, new 2007-2013 

cultural programme) both for its investments (EU 

funds are already financing certain Capital project 

facilities and their development) and for its activities 

(for example, helping with the Aix-en-Provence 

European Music Academy’s 2000 Culture Programme 

or the European “Youth in Action” programme that, 

in 2006 and 2007, financed nearly ten actions and 

which should support the reception and training of 

Euro-Mediterranean “young volunteers” – staff and 

leaders for the future Capital). 

Making up 

for shortcomings in 

good governance 

Since its creation, the Marseilles-Provence bid has been 

spearheaded by an Association responsible for managing 

the project (see Chap. 5). This Association is comprised 

of elected local authorities from each commune as well 

as business, cultural, educational and scientific leaders. 

It is chaired by a business leader. 

The Association’s Administrative Board has met twice 

every month since its creation. All decisions, especially 

financial ones, have been taken unanimously. The 

Board’s independence in terms of artistic and cultural 

programming has been assured and respected by all. 

Two years of work has put the different partners’ 

commitment to the test and helped bring working, 

management and decision-making methods up to 

scratch for a collective project of such magnitude. 

We are positive and reassured by this experience 

– though aware of the difficulties that lie ahead, 

having visited former Capitals – that the European 

Capital of Culture project will make a decisive 

contribution to building a true metropolis and essential 

intercommunal practices. The project’s 

success prefigures and conditions that of the Marseillaise 

Greater Urban Area (AMM). 




Making up for cultural 

shortcomings 

The Marseilles-Provence bid responds to the three 

cultural weaknesses mentioned above. 

It lessens the dispersion handicap by bringing cultural 

figures together and consolidating their activities and 

resources on a few strong, common projects: 

– The “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerranée” where the 

project will be managed collectively by the group, 

– The two new multi-disciplinary, multi-polar festivals, 

InterMed & Via Marseilles, products of the shift 

towards consolidation. 

– Joint museum exhibitions with a common theme, 

presented in several different complementary ways 

(see in the Appendix, the project “Le Partage des 

Midis: Painters and the Mediterranean”). 

– Existing festivals whose activities are already being 

developed in connection with the bid by partnering up 

with diverse cultural institutions (museums, art galleries, 

libraries, theatres, etc.). Such is the case, for example, 

with the Festival of Marseilles, the International Documentary 

Festival and the actOral Festival. 

– Stages and teams collaborating on original new 

projects. The cultural action programme in Northern 

districts initiated by the Gare Franche in collaboration 

with the Scène Nationale du Merlan and 

Lieux Publics – Centre National de Création des 

Arts de la Rue is an example. 

– The project regrouping some of Marseilles’ museums 

in a new and unique space, the Grand Longchamp 

by 2013. 

It diminishes its handicap when it comes to internationally-renowned 

artistic events by presenting two 

new permanent festivals, with no national or international 

equivalent: 

– The “InterMed” Festival, an annual showcase of 

contemporary and multidisciplinary Mediterranean 

creation, 

– The “Via Marseilles” Festival, a European event 

devoted to the relationship between art and public 

spaces (see Chap. 1 and the document in the 

Appendix). 

– By creating two new European high points: 

– International Biennial of Circus Arts, 

– “InterMed Youth,” public workspace for youths. 

By developing existing festivals, such as the Sacred 

Music Festival which, by joining forces with the 

Moroccan Fes Festival and the Slovakian Kosice 

Festival, could become a Euro-Mediterranean event 

par excellence. 

It lessens the handicap of insufficient, internationally 

renowned artistic productions from Marseilles: 

– With the international commissioning programme 

for The “Digue du Large”, “Montains and 

Wonders” and “European Artists’ Funfair” (see 

Chap. 3), 

– With the “New Commissioners” programme 

(see Chap. 1), 

– With commissioning programmes initiated in 

connection with festivals, in particular “Via 

Marseilles”, 

– With certain exceptional productions (creation of 

an opera and a theatrical and musical trilogy for the 

Camus centenary, etc.). 

209

Of all of the candidate cities, Marseilles-Provence is probably the one 

that most needs the title of European Capital of Culture. 

Marseilles is changing. 

Yet despite the massive efforts that have been invested over the last 15 years 

to turn a declining city around, Marseilles-Provence has still not wholly 

made up for falling dramatically behind national and European standards 

in terms of economic and urban modernisation. 

Among these efforts, we have allotted an essential place to the development 

of culture as a force for promoting the regeneration, status and activity of 

our city. 

These efforts deserve to be recognised and encouraged, and they must be 

pursued. 

Of all of the candidate cities, Marseilles-Provence is the one that is most 

directly affected by the major issues that will, in part, determine the 

future of Europe. 

Demographic, economic, ecological and political fractures are worsening 

on the EU’s Southern borders. At the crossroads of populations and religions, 

the Mediterranean is a focal point for the turmoil of our planet. Cultures, 

memories, relationships between men and women, social models, the status 

of art and of our icons all divide the two shores and feed distrust and discord. 

More than any other city, Marseilles-Provence is facing up to these problems. 

As a land of immigration and a city of refuge, rejecting the divisive 

communitarist model, Marseilles is inventing and experimenting with 

blends and mixes that need essential support. 

Thus, of all of the candidate cities, Marseilles-Provence is the most 

intercultural – the city in which dialogue between cultures is both more 

ancient and more diverse. 

Although Marseilles may need the EU more than the other cities do, we 

may also be more useful to Europe than the others, thanks to our 

experience of sharing and integrating. Marseilles, with its own resources, 

could provide the EU with an original and durable tool that might be 

used to advance the 3rd element of the Barcelona Process. The “Ateliers 

de l’Euroméditerranée” will deliver tangible results that will help to push 

the Process forward into areas where it needs to flourish: mobility for 

artists, encounters with artists and their works, the transmission of 

knowledge and skills, and contemporary creation in all various forms. 

210 211

A flagship boat for the “Ateliers de l’Euroméditerrannée”. Images Laurent Garbit 

212 213

Design : Atalante (www.agence-atalante.fr)

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