Like many former imperial port cities, Marseille’s cultural and urban fabric continues to be shaped by it’s entanglement with colonialism. Currently in Marseille, contemporary visual artists are exploring this postcolonial context through their praxis. Many of these artists have dual heritage in France and former French Colonies, which is representative of the inhabitants of Marseille, and use narratives of their own identity, family history and lived experience as a resource to explore the legacies of colonisation in their work.

Building on this decolonial ecologyin the city, the project proposes an inclusive artspace that celebrates the plurality of narratives and histories of the people of Marseille. This artspace is designed for and informed by the artists of Marseille and their “storying”¹, particularly those with heritage in former French Colonies.

As this collection of artists have diverse identities, lived experiences, artistic focuses, aesthetics and working methods, three themes are drawn from the artworks: Narrative/ Oral History, Reappropriation and Seams/Repair. These themes are expressed in three atmospherically distinct routes through the building. This methodology is informed by the design of The Africa Centre by Freehaus.

As current social issues in Marseille are largely rooted in the city’s colonial ties, the arts centre provides a place to navigate these issues in a setting that centres the experience of formerly colonised people, immigrants, and their descendent, all who are often devalued in traditional civic forums and arts institutions.

Learning from the methodologies of the decolonial artists, materials with colonial ties – stone and fabric – are reappropriated in the designing of the artcentre to create an architectural language that reflects this reappropriation as decolonial practice, rather than perpetuating the colonial legacy.

^{1 Archibald et al., Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology, 13.}