Murmurations #2

The Murmurations phenomenon refers to gatherings of birds in flight, whose random movements, instinctive on an individual level, spread on a group scale. In two sessions, Murmurations brings together these new energies that crystallize and redefine the current artistic landscape of the city of Marseille, by proposing to independent structures created and directed by artists, curators and art historians to appropriate the institutional setting of la Friche la Belle de Mai. Fræme gives carte blanche to eleven artists collectives founded in Marseille, bringing together artists, craftspeople as well as young art professionals. Without claiming to provide an exhaustive overview of the scene, such an invitation encourages a process of acknowledgement. It was urgent to make visible the possibilities that opened up thanks to this eclectic ecosystem and the influences it has on the local artistic scene. The phenomenon of Marseille’s artists collectives reflects the will to generate cultural venues outside of the institutional paths. Regardless of the adopted governance model or of the number of members composing them, the collectives’ shapes are ever-changing and they gather around a crucial idea: fellowship. Drawing parallel networks, inventing self-managed socialization and creation spaces allow them to act in the margins, and to claim their counter-power. Responding to an institution’s call is a paradoxical step which highlights the dysfunctions artists collectives are subjected to. In 2022, must they still accept to be paid in visibility? What about their organizational and economical obligations? At the individual and group level, what strategy should be followed? To boycott or to take advantage? Faced with those common issues, opinions and initiatives diverge. While each entity has their own statement, they all chose to reinvent the dynamics of an experiment of uncertain, fragile and mutating co-creations. Murmurations #2 offers a reflection on the concept of “making together” by exploring the contradictions and the inherent limits of the desire to act collectively. Some are moving and decomposing their daily workspace in the institutional field, while others are miming, squatting or mocking it. The interventions, whether they are pieces or performances, set up spaces for encounter and discussion. From all those discourses arises a need to asset their singularity and their intrinsic complexity. The exhibition, without being reduced to the role of passive witness, will be its partner thanks to playful incoherences and distortions. Together, the artists collectives are shaking the aesthetic comfort in which such an event could easily become complacent.