For its 10th anniversary, the Mucem wants to attract a less Parisian and more local audience

An anniversary “totally dedicated to the public” and 100% “homemade”, in other words without an event agency or additional state budget line. For its 10th anniversary, celebrated from the first weekend in June, the Mucem wants to put glitter in the eyes… of the people of Marseille. “We want to tell the public that this place is theirs”, insists the new director Pierre-Olivier Costa, and former chief of staff of Brigitte Macron. Because if it is “the only national museum to have regained its pre-Covid attendance”, with 1.2 million admissions to the site – the Mucem has the particularity of being a place-promenade, between Fort Saint -Jean and the J4 terrace – the wolf hides in the details: only a third of visitors push the door of the exhibition halls.

“We have an over-representation of CSP + in exhibitions, notes Pierre-Olivier Costa in a press conference. It looks like a Parisian museum sociology. We want to change the sociology of visitors to the Mucem, so that it resembles our territory. The director underlines here one of the paradoxes of this cultural place, with architecture signed Rudy Ricciotti, located at the entrance to the Old Port: “The Mucem has become an emblematic place of the city like the Vélodrome stadium or Notre -Lady-of-the-Guard. It’s a huge success, which is part of Marseille’s heritage”. “The impact was cultural,” he continues. Many initiatives have been born, driven by the wave of the Mucem, people who tell us ”you are a bit of the cultural beacon of the territory, that gives you a responsibility”. On tourism, the companies which come to settle in Marseille, it is not neutral either that the Mucem is present. “However, therefore, a certain public is missing.

Black M, Alonzo, Soolkingun…

In the continuity of the “Destination Mucem” buses, which three Sundays a month offer residents of neighborhoods far from the museum the possibility of getting there more easily, work will be carried out on the signage for the exhibitions. On their title too, indicates the director who cites as a counter-example, by his too expert side: “Alexandria: future precedents”. A new permanent exhibition, called “Popular? », will also highlight the collections of the Mucem by explaining what a museum of society is. Better informing the public, better guiding it but also, relates Pierre-Olivier Costa, “rearming Fort Saint-Jean with cultural proposals”: “We are the ones who are going to approach the public, to offer them cultural activities, and that very soon,” he promises.

The first weekend of June should be an illustration of this. This is the first of ten event dates that will punctuate, until June 2024, this anniversary year. Each will be funded through partnerships. “The idea is not to give a specific appointment, but to surprise visitors, explains the director of the Mucem. While strolling, opening a door, they will be able to see a contemporary dance show in Fort Saint-Jean, while descending into the garden, a theater troupe, while going up in the J4 a proposal of classical music, then descending from the rap music, etc. » Also on the program, a big concert on Friday evening with rappers Black M, Alonzo and Soolkingun, a pyrotechnic show by group F on Saturday evening on the esplanade and on Sunday evening, to close the evening, three balls with different musical atmospheres . All entirely free of charge.

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