24/5/2013
Kader Attia
Sea Wall, Marseille
Terraces. His piece for the sea wall will be an architectural sculpture consisting of three small clusters of concrete blocks painted white. Visitors can take a "rooftop" stroll through a Mediterranean village. Part of Marseille-Provence 2013.
A core aim of the European Capital of Culture project is to produce artwork that both supports
contemporary creation and promotes diversity. Marseille-Provence 2013 is involved in one such
project: the commission of a temporary art installation on one of Marseille's most symbolic sites,
the sea wall. The project is part of a coastal renovation project launched by Euroméditerranée,
which has planned new cultural institutions such as the MuCEM, the Villa Méditerranée, the
Musée Regards de Provence, the Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
and the J1 hangar, opened especially for 2013.
The seven kilometre-long sea wall is a narrow strip of land separating the city from the open sea.
It has been closed to the public for years. The Capital of Culture year offers a unique opportunity
to breathe new life into this impressive area. The southern part of the sea wall (Sainte-Marie) will
be open to the public for weekend walks between 25 May and 29 September 2013.
This symbolic revival is the result of a major art commission carried out by Kader Attia, with
artistic direction by François Barré. An artist with many identities, Attia has featured in major
international contemporary art fairs, museums and collections. He participated in the Here,
Elsewhere exhibition produced by Marseille-Provence 2013, and his work is included in the Le
Pont exhibition held by Marseille's Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC).
His piece for the sea wall will be an architectural sculpture consisting of three small clusters of
concrete blocks painted white. Visitors can take a "rooftop" stroll through a Mediterranean village.
"Terraces is an architectural sculpture that stretches along the lower Sainte-Marie section of the
sea wall. Each terrace is at a different height, creating places where visitors can view the open sea and the city of Marseille, sit, relax, lie down and watch the sky."
– Kader Attia, October 2012
Artistic director: François Barré. The Sea Wall project is supported by the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille, public commissioning by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, EuroMéditerranée and Marseille-Provence 2013. Contracting authority: ARTER, Art public contemporain. The Société Marseillaise de Crédit supports this project.
Kader Attia
Kader Attia, born in France in 1970 to Algerian parents, spent his childhood between the suburbs of
Paris and Algiers’ Bab El Oued neighbourhood. He studied philosophy and art in Paris, and held his
first solo exhibition in 1996 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, he has had regular
exhibitions all around the world, gaining international attention following the 50th Venice Biennale
(2003) and the Biennale de Lyon (2005). In 2007, the ICA/Boston (United States) held Momentum,
Attia's first American solo show, followed in 2008 with another, New Works at the Henry Art Gallery
in Seattle. Recent projects include his solo show Construire, Déconstruire, Reconstruire: Le Corps
Utopique at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany,
Performing Histories (1) at the MoMA in New York, 10 ans du Projet pour l'Art Contemporain at
the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the 4th Moscow Biennale, The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds after
1989 at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Contested Terrains at the Tate Modern in London. Attia
currently splits his time between Berlin and Algiers.
François Barré
François Barré was the president of the Centre Pompidou (1993-1996), in charge of arts (1990-
1993), director of architecture and later director of architecture and heritage at the French Ministry
of Culture (1996-2000), and president of the Rencontres internationales de la photographie d'Arles
(2001-2009).
Marseille-Provence 2013
Sophie Sutra Sophie.sutra@mp2013.fr tél. +33 (0)6 77 34 03 35
Maison Diamantée – 1, place Villeneuve Bargemon CS 2013 – 13201 Marseille Cedex 1
Presse internationale
Claudine Colin Communication
Diane Junqua diane@claudinecolin.com tél. +33 (0)1 42 72 60 01 / +33 (0)6 45 03 16 89
Marseille
Saturdays and Sundays, 10am - 7pm. Thursday 15 August, 10am - 7pm.
Free entrance
Access via free ferry boat, departures from the J4, quai de la Tourette (between the Villa Méditerranée and the Fort Saint-Jean). Ferries run from 10am to 7pm
Departures every 20 minutes approximately.