After viewing the five exhibitions, a thought crossed my mind: Marseille, always so different, sailing an alternative course, is offering here a harsh photograph of our environment, sketching the path to follow towards new horizons.
From Bangkok to São Paulo, the question of development which the public are subjected to as much as choose is being asked everywhere. Photographer Ludovic Carème's portrait of Brazil, as powerful as it is sombre, makes us reflect on the common fate inflicted upon nature as well as the most fragile populations; the same overexploitation affects both men and forest.
© Ludovic Carème
What Ludovic Carème portrays are the poor workers, the homeless sleeping opposite empty homes, the Amazon rainforest massacred. Whilst 90% of those living in the favelas are employed, 350,000 families are living in the streets in São Paulo. You can't help but think if this could be one of the possible futures for the West.
Also under the direction of Christian Caujolle, the exhibition "40 Years Later" displays contemporary Cambodian photography at the same time as the Phnom-Penh photography festival's 10th edition, taking place in a country where photography, like dance and cinema, holds a privileged position. Amongst the five artists shown, the conceptual and documentary are brought together to exhibit the desire for evolution shown by Sorn Seyhaktit (known as Ti Tit) and Philong Sivan's Cambodian society, scenes of nocturnal urban life illuminated by a motorbike headlight. Mark Remissa, meanwhile, recreates the setting that so dramatically marked his childhood, utilising cut-up papers plunged into smoke.
The white jerricans, From In the city by Night, 2014 © Philong Sovan
Further on, the in-situ installation by Emmanuelle Lainé tackles another dimension of our environment. Created off the back of a carte blanche offered by the Fondation Ricard, her "Suspension Volontaire de la Crédulité" (Volontary Suspension of Belief) is made up of digital montages, using everyday objects and pieces from the MUCEM collections. With a successful immersive effect, the visitor is plunged into a new destabilising dimension, questioning the borders between our personal and professional lives.
Exhibition view of Voluntary Suspension of Credulity by Emmanuelle Lainé. Photograph Jean-Christophe Lett / Fondation d’entreprise Ricard
But to lighten the mood and avoid complete dejection, we'll head to "Rhum Perrier Menthe Citron", the exhibition directed by Julien Creuzet and Cédric Aurelle. Here, a modular countryside, structured by hay bales, is followed by works from Flora Moscovici, Jagna Ciuchta and Basile Ghosn, inspired by the video, culinary art and, of course, celebration, hospitality, and sharing.
Rhum Perrier Menthe Citron : Flora Moscovici & Jagna Ciuchta, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2019 © Aurélien Meimaris
If this surge of lightness hasn't settled your worries, on to the third floor of the Tower to the exhibition directed by Céline Kopp and Marie de Gaujelac (from the artistic association Triangle France). French artist Paul Maheke, who now works from London, presents his Ooloi installation which we are invited to enter, or rather to experience, in feeling its effects on the mind, and to project ourselves in amongst the red curtains and bronze spheres, brought alive by a backdrop of sound. A figure of the third sex from the series Xenogenesis (1987-89) by African-American feminist science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, Ooloi guides us beyond the visible, the present, the graspable, to experience that which we don't see (yet).
Paul Maheke, OOLOI , solo exhibition, Triangle France Astérides, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2019. Photo: Aurélien Mole.
Next November, the artist (represented by Galerie Sultana) will be lucky enough to present his performances at Performa in New York. Good news!
