What if the city became a giant playground? Today, cities make us think of commerce and pollution, but European artists are helping us see things differently by creating new ways of experiencing urban space together.

Pierre Sauvageot, a composer and the director of the national creation centre Lieux Publics, will draw on his experience creating new urban rituals (Sirènes and Midi Net, Année des 13 Lunes, Small Is Beautiful, etc.) to invite artists to come and play with the public space. These artists, from fifteen European countries, have worked together as part of the In Situ network or are based in Marseille and the surrounding region. As the proponents of a “new urban art form”, they believe that in order to give the city meaning, we must change the way we interact with it. They will transform an enormous façade into a fun-house mirror markets, fountains and staircases into ballroom floors streets into musical scores or imaginary art galleries the walls of buildings into screens or cases before inviting us to a 300-metre long table for a meal in the Canebière neighbourhood. For its 100th anniversary, The Rite of Spring will take the form of a travelling symphony, with one thousand builders constructing an ephemeral city. This is a parable for the need to reunite of art and urbanism. Lieux Publics and In Situ will also bring the two European Capitals of Culture 2103 — Marseille-Provence and Košice (Slovakia) together at a conference on the theme “The city as a playground”.