Je travaille aussi… CHEZ TOI!

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Je travaille aussi.CHEZ TOI! – BAR DU ROND POINT was part of the project PARCEQUE.

This project was a collaboration between Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius, Boris Sieverts, Stefan Shankland and myself. It was undertaken as part of the Quartiers Créatifs Project, initiated by Marseille-Provence 2013 (European Capital of Culture) and supported by the Goethe-Institut.

PARCEQUE was a twenty-four month long artistic research-and-action-project in Les Hauts de Mazargues / Marseille, a district at the south border of Marseille adjacent to the Calaques – an outstanding National Parc of France. A district in which the main prison of Marseille (Les Baumettes) was placed and which accommodated during and after the Second World War different refugee camps and emergency sheters. These were replaced in the 70ies by social housing projects (La Cayolle) while the prison still remains.

Today, new urban planning tries to connect and rearrange the old town Mazargues, different industrial areas, some smaller gated communities, the remaining farms, apartment buildings and social housing. In this area for most people the shopping mall is the only public space to meet. A public place of exchange does not exist. In this setting we placed a wooden veranda for a month. A sculptural platform that was specifically developed for the location. Together with the inhabitants we created a place of memory and for discussions, exhibitions, guided tours, cooking and different workshops.

Our fieldwork culminated in a public program that took place in May and June 2013 on a brownfield area facing the shoppping mall E. Leclerc Sormiou in the La Cayolle quarter. Over a period of four weeks, local residents, volunteers, students, members of associations, school children, social workers, artisans, town planners, architects and artists met there to build, cook and participate in PARCEQUE, which contained 101 proposals for this neigbourhood in transformation.

„Je travaille aussi.CHEZ TOI!“ and the BAR DU ROND POINT were two of these proposals.