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France/Europe
The Med touch - Marseilles is European capital of culture 2013
Article published on the 2008-09-17 Latest update 2008-11-07 11:51 TU
Marseilles' famous old port
(Photo: T Cross)
Local dignitaries in Marseilles were triumphant on Tuesday, when the city was chosen to be the European capital of culture for 2013. With a budget of 98 million euros, the organisers promise to take a serious look at culture around the Mediterranean, touching on potentially sensitive issues such as gender relations and joint use of religious sites. They also expect a serious return on money invested.
A ferry crosses Marseilles' old port
(Photo: Tony Cross)
"Marseilles Provence European Capital of Culture, at last Europe has understood the importance of the Mediterranean," declared local Socialist politician Eugène Caselli after the decision was announced.
Praise has been heaped on the director of the project that won the bid, Bernard Latarjet, a former government spokesperson under President François Mitterrand and boss of Paris's La Villette science and culture park.
"The project is very ambitious and so, artistically and philosphically, very difficult and risky," Latarjet said. "It's not just a collection of parties and shows but a wish to face up to some serious questions through culture."
The Vieille Charité was a paupers' hostel and is now a museum of Mediterranean archeology and non-European art
(Photo: Tony Cross)
An exhibition entitled "Sex genders and minorities", which will include six specially commissioned films, will invite artists' and philisophers' comments on gender-relations.
Others will examine questions such as joint use of religious sites and water resources.
"Nowadays, with migration, all Europe's cities have become Mediterranean," says Latarjet.
Sunset on the Marseilles seafront
(Photo: Tony Cross)
The plans include the establishment of a Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, a Contemporary Art Foundation, a Regional Centre for the Mediterranean and a visual arts centre at the railway workshops in the nearby city of Arles.
Businesses will provide 15 million euros of the 98 million euro budget, the rest of which will come from the French state, the EU and local authorities.
The local Chamber of Commerce hopes to emulate the example of Lille, the Capital of Culture in 2004, which earned six euros for every one euro invested. The northern French city enjoyed a tourist boom which brought in eight million tourists and saw the number of foreign visitors rise by 50 per cent.
