Récitadelles

Positioned at the intersection of mediation and contemporary creation, Récitadelles explores polyvocality—understood as the coexistence of multiple voices or narratives—through cooperative processes for interpreting shared heritage. This approach seeks to acknowledge and support current demands for equity and social justice within the fields of culture and heritage.

It encourages everyone to take part in the processes of identifying, studying, interpreting, safeguarding, conserving, and presenting cultural heritage and matrimoine, as well as in reflection and public debate on their societal role, in line with the principles of the Faro Convention—a text that promotes the active participation of every individual in the identification, study, interpretation, protection, conservation, and presentation of cultural heritage.

Récitadelles also contributes to the momentum of memory-collection initiatives launched in 2023 by the Citadelle de Marseille, and lays the groundwork for future projects based on plural narratives, observations, and interpretations. Its ambition is to establish the Fort as a site for collective reflection, invested by new communities, in parallel with its recent reopening to the public in May 2024 and the rollout of its heritage-based third-place project, which places inclusion and the exercise of citizenship at the heart of its mission.

Launched in October 2024 for a twelve-month period, a wide range of voices collaborate around the project: site staff, residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods, artists, cultural mediators, students, memory holders, researchers, and artist-researchers, working across several strands:

• the collection of narratives;
• an artistic residency;
• study days led by a research–creation–action community;
• field investigations carried out by the research–creation–action community, as well as by Master’s students in Cultural Mediation of the Arts at Aix-Marseille University, who are also working on the creation of digital mediation tools together with students in Interactive Narratives from the DNMADe programme at the École Supérieure de Design Marseille;
• a film or audiovisual work documenting the working processes behind Récitadelles.

Récitadelles will also engage a broader audience through seminars, participatory workshops for reflection and action, artistic residency open studios, walks, and other formats currently under development.