L’île aux chiens (the isle of dogs)

Picture: ©Matëo Granger

Details

Price: Free

Age: 10+

Duration: 20/30 min

Organiser

La Citadelle de Marseille
Chroniques – La Biennale des imaginaires numériques

Place

Around the Citadelle
Marseille

When I was a kid, I dreamt of being a lighthouse guardian, and as things have turned out, I wasn’t too far off. When people ask what I do, I say I’m the Guardian of the Fort.

You might think my imagination is far too vivid, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The thing is, I have to imagine things, given that I’m on my own all day. It’s a pretty solitary line of work, but with the echoes of so many stories in my head, I’ve got plenty to keep my mind busy.

The opening of Fort Saint-Nicolas to the public in 2024, even if only partially, is a highly anticipated event for the residents of the city of Marseille. A heavy gate will finally open on one of Marseille’s most visible, best-identified buildings, most steeped in history – but also one of its most mysterious.

Valérie Manteau invites you to explore the sensitive shadowy areas that remain in the interstices of Marseille’s great heroic history, which was written stone by stone in the fort. A walk among the ghosts that plunges you into the mysteries of the Citadelle and sheds light on a little-known episode shrouded in fantasy and suspicion: the occupation of the Citadelle by hundreds of animals, under the aegis of the Army Health and Veterinary Service from 1978 to 2011.

By entrusting its evocation to a civilian who is simply a dog walker, this sound fiction, embodied at a human level, will accompany your journey and try to lift the veil on the taboos protected by the walls that stand in the heart of the city.

Sounwalk available from May 4 on the dedicated application – GOH

Know more

The artists

Valérie Manteau – is a French author, editor and columnist. Her first two books, Calme et Tranquille (2016) and Le Sillon (2018), are published by Le Tripode. For these first novels, she draws inspiration from Turkey, a country close to her heart, to weave her narrative. In 2018, she won the Prix Renaudot for her second novel, Le Sillon. A former member of the “Charlie Hebdo” team, she was also editor at Les Échappés from 2008 to 2013.
In 2013, she joined the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem) in Marseille, as publishing and distribution manager. She now lives between Marseille and Istanbul.

Gaëtan Gromer, born in 1978, is a sound composer, artist and director who lives and works in Strasbourg. He is the artistic director of Les Ensembles 2.2. He regularly brings his work into conversation with other disciplines, and has notably worked with Maria La Ribot, Valérie Manteau, Hélène Gaudy, Etienne Fanteguzzi, Sebastian Dicenaire, Eve Risser, Lucie Taïeb, Clara Olivares, LNLO, Samuel et Léo Henry, luvan, Zahra Poonawala, Stéphane Perger, Espèce de collectif…

He regularly performs and exhibits in Strasbourg (Musica, Ososphère, ONR, TNS, PMC, Maillon, Pôle Sud, etc.), as well as at MAMCO (Geneva), CAC (Vilnius), CCAM (Vandoeuvre), Gymnase (Roubaix), Laboral (Gijon), Transient (Paris), Accès)s( (Pau), Lieu Multiple (Poitiers), Contemporary Art Biennale (Sélestat), Nuit Blanche (Brussels), Digital Life (Rome), Electric Nights (Athens)…

Antoine Spindler – Trained at the Strasbourg Conservatory in the classes of Ana Haas (violin) and Claude Ducroq (viola), as well as at the University of Strasbourg in musicology, Antoine Spindler has trained (Ircam, Fastlane, PML…) and specialized in electroacoustic and mixed music. He teaches in the Electroacoustic Creation and Interpretation class at the Conservatoire and L’Académie Supérieure de Musique-Hear in Strasbourg. He currently plays with the trio Jafta, with whom he released the album Traces, and with the duo Svië, with whom he created the album Port Data. His experiences have enabled him to collaborate with various ensembles and musicians (Linéa, Live Animated Orchestra, the Ethos quartet, Plurium, Clara Olivares, Eve Risser etc.) as well as with different authors (Hélène Gaudy, Jean Fauque, Valérie Manteau, Sébastien Dicenaire, Lucie Taïeb etc.).