Résistances & Désobéissances

La Citadelle de Marseille is the initiator of this residency programme for two artists. It has partnered with French and Tunisian organisations to jointly develop cross-perspectives, notably involving civil society.

Under the provisional title Resistances and Disobediences, the programme takes as its starting point the imprisonment of Habib Bourguiba at the Citadelle de Marseille between 1939 and 1942. A Tunisian independence leader who later became the country’s head of state, Bourguiba is an ambivalent figure who was repeatedly imprisoned alongside members of the Neo-Destour party prior to independence. Together with all its partners, the project seeks to reflect on the role of the prison as a place where forms of resistance and disobedience are forged. With very limited archival material available, the Citadelle brings together its on-site heritage and existing academic research to piece fragments of history back together, calling upon artistic creation to address immaterial archives and the reappropriation by civil society of sites of oppression.

The residency project also takes place within the framework of Saison Méditerranée, initiated by the Institut français and curated by Julie Kretzschmar. It is intended for artists interested in alternative methods of archival collection, decolonial approaches, and questions of memory—particularly those engaging with the principle of polyvocality—as well as in the possibilities offered by digital media to explore these issues. The programme also aims to involve various diasporas and to invent new ways of relating to shared heritage.

With the support of research institutes in Marseille (IREMAM) and Tunis, as well as artistic support organisations focused on digital creation, the artists will be hosted for a period of twelve weeks. The French artist will be welcomed in Tunis at B7L9, the art centre of the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, with support from Museum Lab. The Tunisian artist will be hosted in Marseille at the Citadelle, with support from Chroniques.

The works produced will be presented at the Citadelle during the opening of Saison Méditerranée in May 2026, which launches in Marseille. They will remain on display until the opening of the Chroniques Biennale in autumn 2026. A subsequent presentation in Tunis will then take place.

A project led by the Citadelle de Marseille, as part of Saison Méditerranée 2026, initiated by the Institut français, under the general curatorship of Julie Kretzschmar, and in partnership with the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Museum Lab, Chroniques, IREMAM, Institut français Tunisie, and IRMC.

With the support of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.