Since her earliest works in France, Palestine and Morocco, the artist and editor Martine Derain (b. 1960, FR)  has been developing narratives about collective stories and public space. Derain publishes books with les éditions communes, which she founded in 2010, and makes films where she positions herself as the “storyteller”. These films and publications are documentary fables that mix art and politics as well as urban planning and poetry. She creates narratives around found, entrusted, institutional and personal archives  – collected during long journeys through different places with other. In Marseille, she also finds herself in the role of a caretaker for various sites of creation and production such as La Compagnie, a contemporary art venue, and the Polygone étoilé, a cinema dedicated to “non-aligned” films.

Martine Derain , Républiques, 2006
Digital prints
Courtesy of the artist

Rue de la République runs through the heart of Marseille, and many of its homes were constructed in the same century as the Musée Grobet-Labadié. Originally built for the bourgeoisie of the 19th century, the street would later be inhabited by port workers and the middle class. After the oil shock of the 1970s, thousands of people left Marseille, leaving many of the homes deserted. By the early 2000s, three quarters of the apartments were empty. These buildings were then sold off to international investors, with the support of the municipal government at the time, and the remaining working-class tenants were forced to leave. An exemplary mobilisation followed, thanks to which many of the residents have been rehoused on the same street. Yet, many buildings still remain empty: too expensive for the poor, not attractive enough for the rich. Alongside a team of academics, activists, and local residents, the Marseillebased artist and publisher Martine Derain documented many of these empty homes along Rue de la République. The images presented in the museum’s stairwell were either produced or collected during this project and were also featured in her exhibition Invisible Archives #5 Par ses habitants même as part of Manifesta 13 Marseille’s Le Tiers Programme.

Martine Derain , Sans titre / Untitled, 2020
Site-specific installation
Courtesy of the artist
« Marseille où tout finit » Press article Détective (circa 1950)
Courtesy Dalila Mahdjoub
Selection of archival photographs from Fonds Photographique de Grégoire Keussayan (1970-1980)
Demonstration of March 9, 2006, video (24’53”)

The central Belsunce district of Marseille is historically a place of arrival and transition of workers from North Africa, many of which continue to live there, often in dilapidated furnished hotel rooms. At the beginning of the 2000s, the municipality launched an urban renewal plan of which they were the first victims. Community and activist groups such as Un Centre-Ville Pour Tous then rallied to support them. Martine Derain brings together fragments of this history: a press article from the 1950’s, where we see the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, proclaimed the ’door to work’ was then wide open; a series of photographs by Grégoire Keussayan, a neighbourhood photograper of Armenian-French origin, who photographed those workers to send photos to their families back home; a video showing those fighting for their rights for housing after the municipality threatened to evict them.

* Work conceived for the occasion of Manifesta 13 Marseille