TransHumances 2013 logoThe Capital of Culture moves outdoors, with fire and water magic, street art, beach theatre and an amazing odyssey of thousands of riders across Provence. Indoors, Arles has an unusual show of art inspired by clouds.

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Click here to read our April diary for Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture.

For the full programme (many, though by no means all, pages are now finally translated into English), see the website for Marseille-Provence 2013: European Capital of Culture.

Visitors to Marseille should also head for the new temporary Pavillon M on the place Villeneuve-Bargemon just off the Old Port, which is a primary source of information (the main Tourist Office at 11 la Canebière will be open as usual too).

Le Routard guide to MP2013If you read French, you might be interested in Le Routard Marseille, Provence 2013, capitale européenne de la culture, a very comprehensive book-length guide to what's going on.

3-20 May La Folle Histoire des Arts de la Rue (The Amazing History of Street Arts) is an ambitious programme of unconventional street art in towns and cities and on streets and beaches all across Southern Provence.

It kicks off at 8.30pm on 3-4 May on Marseille's Old Port. On these two evenings, the city will be plunged into darkness, all the better to appreciate a spectacular 800,000 €uro light show.

Entre Flammes et Flots (Between Flames and Water) is staged by the pyrotechnicians Carabosse that will include a huge tunnel of fire and the illusion of acrobats walking on water. Admission to this event is free.

Machine Dance by Compagnie MotionhouseThe following two-week programme of over 50 shows focuses on six locations: Marseille, Martigues, Lambesc, Marignane, Charleval, Port Saint Louis du Rhône and Aureille.

It includes Machine Dance by the Motionhouse Theatre Company, pictured, in which dancers are partnered by back-hoes. 10-11 May, 3.00pm and 9.30pm. Admission free.

More details of the 2013 programme for The Amazing History of Street Arts.

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3 May-9 June La Friche La Belle de Mai, the arts complex in a northern district of Marseille, is taken over by contemporary art, modern music, street art and sports for This Is [Not] Music, a celebration of alternative urban culture.

Promenoir a Nuage by Francoise Coutant16 May-31 October An unusual concept is at the centre of a major show at the Musée Réattu in Arles, Nuage, or Cloud. The exhibition showcases exactly that: clouds in Eastern and Western art, both classic and contemporary.

It features Chinese pottery pillows in the shape of clouds, over 150 works by René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Anselm Kiefer, Cornelia Parker, and more. Pictured: Promenoir à nuage (Walk with a Cloud) by Françoise Coutant, 2003.

17 May-9 June One of the flagship events of the Capital of Culture programme and perhaps the most bizarre, TransHumance is a mix of popular tradition, theatre and experimental happening.

Inspired by the annual movement of animals in Provence between their summer and winter pastures, two convoys of cattle, sheep and horses and their herders - originating from Italy and the Camargue - will converge in the Arles area, in what the organisers describe as a "regional mosaic" which will be photographed from above.

TransHumance in the CamargueAfter meeting there, the great caravan will move onwards to Marseille, where thousands of riders and livestock will process through the city streets on 9 June.

As the convoy proceeds on its way, the various towns and villages it passes through are staging very special events to welcome the riders.

Les Baux de Provence has, on 27 May at 8.30pm, a concert in the lovely 12th century Saint Vincent's church. Three musicians from Mongolia, India and China will perform individually on their traditional instruments, then "jam" as an ensemble.

On the evening of 28 May, films of the TransHumance will be projected at the Quarries of Lights from 7.00-10.30pm and, from 9.15pm to midnight, there will be a concert by Raphaël Imbert and his band. The horses of the TransHumance will process through the village in the course of the evening and give a short show in the keep of the Château.

19 May The French master-pyrotechnians Groupe F are staging Revelations, a "spectacle and saga" on the Cassis seafront at 10.30pm.

FireworksExpect music, a light show, a "dazzling choreographic interpretation of the material and immaterial national heritage" (whatever that might mean) and, naturally, fireworks. 10.30pm. Read more about Revelations.

25 May-20 October At Marseille's Museum of Contemporary Art, or [MAC], Le Pont (The Bridge) is an exhibition of work by artists from the Mediterranean region.

25 May-2 June Plus Radieuse la Vie is an exhibition by young artists at Le Corbusier's Radiant City in Marseille. It's on the building's legendary roof terrace on 25-26 May, then moves indoors from 27 May-2 June. Read more about Plus Radieuse la Vie.

La Digue du Large Marseille25 May-29 September The Digue du Large, a 7 km / 4.5 mile long breakwater that runs between Marseille's Old Port and L'Estaque, has long been inaccessible.

Now it has re-opened to the public, allowing you to walk "over" the sea for the first time since 2001 and offering fresh views of the city from a surprising perspective.

As a bonus, the Franco-Algerian sculptor Kader Attia has created an installation, Les Terrasses (The Terraces), all along the breakwater: a series of bright white cubes and geometric shapes which you can climb on for yet more viewing points.

The Digue du Large is open at weekends and accessed by a free boat shuttle from the J4 Esplanade, near the MuCEM. Note that boats may be cancelled on days of high winds.

Canal in Martigues31 May-9 June Martigues, with its Venetian mini-canal and views over the Berre Lake, will be taken over by the Ilotopie theatre company for a spectacle, Anapos, Cité Lacustre (Anapos, Lakeside City).

Incorporating these waterside spaces, the show combines performance art, music and pyrotechnics to examine our view of water and to erect an imaginary city on the canals.

Ongoing Events

Until 5 May VitaNONNova, a series of large multidisciplinary installations at the Ateliers SNCF, Arles, will combine film, opera, literature and live performances to investigate the theme of urban ghettos, influenced by Bobby Seal, Fred Hampton and the Afro-American movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

The creators, Jean-Michel Bruyère and the avant-garde LFKs collective, made a splash last summer at the Festival d'Aix with an opera inspired by the Black Panther leader Huey P Newton.

Until 19 May Matta, Surrealism and History are the themes of a show at the Musée Cantini, Marseille, devoted to the Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta (1911-2002), who started out as a pure surrealist but became politicised by the cataclysmic events of the late 20th century.

Until 26 May Mediterranées (Mediterraneans) takes you on a virtual odyssey around eleven ports on the Mediterranean from Troy to Marseille.

The J1 gallery, MarseilleIt's held at the J1 Hangar, pictured, a new venue converted from a huge former ferry terminal at the heart of Marseille's bustling port area. It boasts a 6,000 square metre / 64,500 square foot visitor centre with a bar and restaurant overlooking the bay as well as a large gallery space.

Until 26 May In the Joliette district, near Marseille's port area, the Fonds Régional de l'Art Contemporain Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, more snappily known as the FRAC PACA, is a new museum designed by Kengo Kuma and hosts contemporary art collections and an exhibition space.

Its inaugural show is called La Fabrique des possibles (The Possibility Factory), features art that questions scientific conventions and spotlights the work of Richard Baquié, among others. Read our full guide to the FRAC PACA

Until 16 June The Musée Regards de Provence is the new home of the Fondation Regards de Provence, an organisation which stages excellent shows celebrating provençal art from all eras: it has recently spotlighted Félix Ziem, Joseph Garibaldi, Roger Blachon and René Seyssaud, among others, at its previous venue.

Converted from a former station sanitaire, the Musée Regards de Provence is right on the seafront by the Cathedral and the MuCEM and the first exhibition there displays a wide variety of work from the Fondation's collection.

Until 30 June L'Invention du sauvage (The Invention of the Savage) is an exhibition tracing the way men, women and children from Africa, Asia, Oceana or America were put on display in circuses, cabarets, fairs and zoos. It investigates how these shows have shaped the way the West viewed other cultures between the 16th and mid-20th centuries. At the Chapelle de Méjan, Arles.


Until 1 September L'Ombre de l'Antique (The Shadow of Antiquity) explores the connections between the sculptor Auguste Rodin and classical Greek art.

Rodin never actually went to Greece, but collected some 2,500 original works or replicas from classical antiquity, and was profoundly influenced by them.

The exhibition gathers over 250 pieces by Greek sculptors and by Rodin himself in order to highlight these links and will travel on to the Musée Rodin in Paris in November. At the Musée Départementale Arles Antique.

Until 26 September Les Baux de Provence is hosting a slightly unusual spin on MP2013's ubiquitous theme of painters in the Mediterranean. Instead of a show exploring their fascination with the landscapes, its exhibition, Les Capitales Méditerranéennes "de Signac à Buffet", looks at how painters have portrayed southern cities from Toulon to Arles. At the Musée Yves Brayer.

Foreign Legion TattooUntil 30 September The Musée de la Légion étrangère (Museum of the Foreign Legion) in Aubagne hosts La Légion dans la peau (The Legion Under Their Skin), an intriguing-sounding display of photographs of legionnaires revealing their tattoos.

Until 13 October The conceptual artist Bernar Venet, who was born in Château Arnoux in Haute Provence, was invited to install a very large-scale work in the Jardin du Pharo, a park overlooking the Old Port of Marseille and surrounding the Palais du Pharo, itself recently the subject of renovation. Venet's piece, called Désordre (Disorder) consists of a huge interlocking cluster of his trademark monumental arches.

Until 13 October
Aubagne, a centre of terracotta in its own right, is hosting a major show celebrating Pablo Picasso's Mediterranean-themed ceramics.

After the Second World War until the end of his life, the artist experimented with this medium, employing themes with a Southern flavour: ancient myths, the sun, bullfighting, doves and olive trees and, as always, women.

Some 150 pieces are featured, many of them from private collections, principally the Picasso estate, and have never seen before on public display. Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs, Aubagne.

 

 

Until 15 October All around the spectacular landscapes of the Camargue, Arles and the Rhône delta, Les Grands Chemins d'Envies Rhônements are a series of contemporary art installations and hiking trails with - as the punning title of the event hints - an environmental theme.

The  Quarries of Lights at Les Baux de ProvenceUntil 5 January 2014 A brand-new version of the hugely popular son et lumière show at the Quarries of Lights (formerly known as the Cathedral of Images), pictured, links into the overall Mediterranean theme of Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture.

Called Monet, Renoir... Chagall. Voyages en Méditerranée (Voyages to the Mediterranean), it explores how the luminous colours of the Mediterranean, from the Spanish border to the Italian Riviera, have attracted painters throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Click here to read our June diary for Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture.

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