The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée — MuCEM) is a ground-breaking project for the Mediterranean region of the 21st century.

With an exceptional location overlooking the entrance to the Vieux Port, the MuCEM incorporates the Fort Saint-Jean, a historical site spanning 15,000 m2, and a new 17,000 m2 building constructed by architect Rudy Ricciotti on the J4 pier. Both sites will be linked by a pedestrian bridge of 115 m.

The MuCEM will open its doors in 2013, at the time when Marseille will be the European Capital of Culture.

Diane JUNQUA /  diane@claudinecolin.com

This exhibition opens with Goya and Miro, the lights and their shadows, the idea of civilisation and its inverse, which vindicates violence and conquest.

The Black and Blue… A crossing of imaginary representations of the Mediterranean, in twelve moments: A Tour of the Mediterranean in the Eighteenth Century; Conquest and Civilisation; Antiquities; Vacation; Exchanges and Cosmopolitism; A Shared Dream?; Domination and Affirmation ; A Dream Destroyed and Reinvented; Blue Tourism / Black Mafia ; The Mediterranean of the Dark Years (Beirut, Algiers, Sarajevo, Jerusalem); Crossings and “A Salvo of the Future…”.

A story and a journey, from one shore of the Mediterranean to the other, that invites us to come look from the other side of the mirror.

An exhibition of civilisation that combines paintings, sculptures, photographs and contemporary installations, rare documents, books, manuscripts and journals, and images from the archives, both documentary and fiction.

A Mediterranean dream, constantly renewed, which does not forget the nightmares of history, yet is never imprisoned.

The Black and Blue…

Diane Junqua / diane@claudinecolin.com

On the ground floor of the J4, the Gallery of the Mediterranean offers a unique perspective on the history of civilisations of the Mediterranean Basin.

Invention and expansion of agriculture, monotheisms, citizenship and human rights, travel and major discoveries, constitute the four thematic axes of a transversal and multidisciplinary itinerary for the discovery of the Mediterranean world.

The exhibition unveils objects from diverse periods, origins and styles: archaeological pieces, testaments of daily life, sculptures, paintings, and contemporary art (Cristina Lucas, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jacques Monory, Barthélémy Toguo…).

This original selection highlights certain key issues of the contemporary world: the environment, human rights, and relations with the Other

Diane JUNQUA / diane@claudinecolin.com

Victoire Birembaux / victoire@claudinecolin.com

Starting on 8 March 2013, the monumental Carrières de Lumières in Baux-de-Provence will be the venue for a brand new show entitled Monet, Renoir... Chagall. Voyages en Méditerranée (Journeys around the Mediterranean). With Marseille-Provence 2013 endorsement, this show will be using multimedia capability as a vehicle to convey emotion and invite visitors to wander freely around the quarries following the variations of 16 great artists on the subject of the Mediterranean. It will take us from one movement to the next in a long journey to the heart of pictorial modernity, on the shores depicted by Impressionism, Pointillism and Fauvism... up to Chagall. 

Marseille-Provence has been selected to be the European Capital of Culture in 2013. All year long, hundreds of cultural and artistic events will take place throughout the Provence region: in Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Aubagne, Gardanne, Istres, La Ciotat, Martigues, Salon-de-Provence and, of course, Marseille.

On the menu: dance, music, visual arts, theatre, exhibitions, street art, literature, digital art, gastronomy and cinema.

Visitors will be invited to take part in events at museums, theatres and open-air venues in both urban areas and natural environments. Marseille-Provence 2013: an unmissable event.

Diane JUNQUA / diane@claudinecolin.com

Lens, Pas-de-Calais

The implantation in Lens (Pas-de-Calais) of one of the most famous museums in the world, demonstrates the Louvre’s strong commitment for the decentralization and democratization of culture. The Japanese agency SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizaw), winner of the 2010 Pritzker Prize, museographer Adrien Gardère, landscape designer Catherine Mosbach designed the new Louvre-Lens. Designing a low structure, which is airy, fluid and accessible, the building is harmoniously integrated into the site without crushing it by its presence. Covering an area of 28,000 m2 (301,390 sq ft), the structure consists of five main glass and metal buildings, which opens out on an exceptional natural environment of 20 hectares. 

The museum will have two semi-permanent exhibition spaces: the Great Gallery and the Glass Pavilion. Within the Great Gallery, the Gallery of Time will present masterpieces from the Louvre collections in a chronological and transversal manner, reflecting the history of art from the 4th millennium BC to the middle of the 19th century. Among the highlights are Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (1514-1515) by Raphael, Mary Magdalene with a Night Light (c. 1640–45) by Georges de La Tour. The Glass Pavilion, located after the Gallery of Time, will offer an additional exhibition space to welcome related thematic exhibitions.

The inaugural exhibition “Renaissance” will present in the Exhibitions Wing, major artworks of the greatest masters of the Renaissance (Raphael, Mantegna, Pisanello, Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach...)

Acquired by the Swedish collector Staffan Ahrenberg in 2011, Cahiers d’Art refers at once to a publishing house, a gallery, and to a revue founded in 1926 by Christian Zervos. Ahrenberg, the Publisher of Cahiers d’Art, is joined by his key advisors, Sam Keller, Director of the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland and Chairman of Art Basel, Hans Ulrich Obrist, art critic and Co-Director of the Serpentine Gallery in London, and Isabela Mora. 

Sandrine Mahaut / sandrine@claudinecolin.com