City Rationale
As Bloom walks about Dublin, a motif of this chapter is desire, attraction (tobacco, alcohol, food, religion) – a sense of attraction to what might enhance life. Marseille, a port city since 600 B.C., has offered refuge to wave upon wave of immigrants, lured by the thought of a better or different life. The Mediterranean metropolis is home to 100,000 immigrants from Algeria, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and beyond. Fifty years ago, from Alexandria to Beirut to Algeria’s Oran, multicultural cities were the norm on the Mediterranean. Today it could be argued that Marseille is the only one remaining. As such, it may represent a laboratory or a model for a new heterogeneous Europe.
Ulysses Episode
Episode V – Bloom makes his way to Westland Row post office, where he receives a love letter from one ‘Martha Clifford’ addressed to his pseudonym, ‘Henry Flower’. He meets an acquaintance, and while they chat, Bloom attempts to ogle a woman wearing stockings, but is prevented by a passing tram. Next, he reads the letter and tears up the envelope in an alley. He wanders into a Catholic church service and muses on theology. The priest has the letters I.N.R.I. or I.H.S. on his back; Molly had told Bloom that they meant I have sinned or I have suffered, and Iron nails ran in. He goes to a chemist where he buys a bar of lemon soap. He then meets another acquaintance, Bantam Lyons, who mistakenly takes him to be offering a racing tip for the horse Throwaway. Finally, Bloom heads towards the baths.
Homer Odyssey Chapter
Lotus Eaters – Book 9: Reluctantly, Odysseus tells the Phaeacians the sorry tale of his wanderings. From Troy, the winds sweep him and his men to Ismarus, city of the Cicones. The men plunder the land and, carried away by greed, stay until the reinforced ranks of the Cicones turn on them and attack. Odysseus and his crew finally escape, having lost six men per ship. A storm sent by Zeus sweeps them along for nine days before bringing them to the land of the Lotus-eaters, where the natives give some of Odysseus’s men the intoxicating fruit of the lotus. As soon as they eat this fruit, they lose all thoughts of home and long for nothing more than to stay there eating more fruit. Only by dragging his men back to the ship and locking them up can Odysseus get them off the island.
Public Events
Public Symposium
Artists’ Exchange
This project strand offered short residency opportunities in partner cities for 30 emerging artists as part of the legacy of this pan-European project.
Each city partner sent two artists on a residency to another partner’s city of a different art form, thereby seeking to enrich their professional practice through inter-disciplinary residencies. Artists were chosen on the basis of having demonstrated an interest in the hosting city’s Arts & Society contemporary European theme. They had to also practice a different art form from that of the hosting city’s public event. The project offered the emerging artists the opportunity to travel without the pressure to produce work and ideally to experience UEO’s public events.
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Partner description
Irish artists gethan&myles have lived and worked in Marseille since 2011. Their socially-engaged and collaborative practice is constructed in constant contact with the concrete experiences lived and shared by those around them. Their installations, films, sculptures, images and textual works vindicate the capacity of art to enrich our relationship with others and the world around us.
Collective ildi ! eldi is a theatre collective which, since 2008, has been led by Sophie Cattani and Antoine Oppenheim. It is made up of actors, technicians, musicians and writers who work with new writing. Currently the collective works exclusively with writers and artists to create new pieces of theatre and performance.
Thanks also to La Comedie de Valence and Comede.