Where Histories Lie

Venue: Musée d’Histoire de Marseille
11 September – 29 November 2020

The Musée d’Histoire de Marseille is a singular space, nestled between a shopping centre and the garden of vestiges, between the Old Port and the Belsunce neighbourhood. Neither here nor there, it is a space in-between antiquity and the present, in-between preservation and consumption, a space where 2600 years of stories are shared and sometimes erased.

Starting from the city’s earliest settlements to its most recent urban developments, the histories of Europe’s oldest port city have always been shaped by trade. Situated between the imperatives of global economics and local struggles, its urban centres have subsequently emerged as intractable sites of conflict and compromise. In recent years, the ways collective memories are shared in public spaces have become increasingly contested.

The Port: Where Histories Lie explores some of the political implications of selective historical narration. Here, the objects and official narratives enshrined in the Musée d’Histoire de Marseille are interwoven with conversations and memories of Marseille’s inhabitants. Taken together, they paint the city as a hybrid territory, a kind of cultural “carrefour”.

Participants: Yassine Balbzioui* (1972, MA), Samia Henni* (1980, CH/DZ), Sara Ouhaddou* (1986, FR/MA).