Application and Residency Conditions 2024-25
The Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem) is a national museum based in Marseille. Europe and the Mediterranean are examined from the perspective of the humanities, social sciences and art. Emphasis is placed on Euro-Mediterranean circulation and exchange, on changes in our societies and on sensitive issues, as well as on contemporary re-readings of ordinary or informal cultures and practices (technical cultures, know-how, representations and imaginaries, productions and expressions that are little or not institutionalized).
Mucem’s collections and resources comprises a million diverse items: objects, photographs, posters and prints, postcards, archives (sound, audio-visual, paper…). They include a French and European ethnographic collection documenting popular customs, practices, cultures and arts (19th-20th centuries), extended to urban anthropology of the 20th and 21st centuries, and since the 2000s to a Mediterranean scale. These collections are organized around thematic clusters (performing arts; religions and beliefs; public life; sport and health; crafts, trade and industry; mobility, crossbreeding and communication; domestic life; bodies, appearances and sexuality; agriculture and food; contemporary art; museum history). In addition, two multi-year research programs on contemporary worlds are underway in 2024-2025: one devoted to the ethnography of creation in exile, and the other to popular appropriations of ancient heritages.
For 2024-25, two of the proposed axes (1 and 2) for the Mucem/Iméra residency are only open to artists concerned with ethnographic and museological questions, while the third axis is also open to researchers in the humanities and social sciences, museum professionals, and heritage experts. Your project should be developed in relation to one of these three axes.
The Mucem/Iméra residency project should be concretely applied to the Mucem, in coordination with the programs of the Iméra (Arts & Sciences: Indisciplined Knowledge & Mediterranean), with particular attention to the Mediterranean dimension. Its main objectives are to:
- Conduct research in connection with the collections and documentary resources of the Mucem, as well as its scientific and cultural programming.
- Rethink artists’ interventions in museums of civilizations.
- Rethink the relationship between artistic works and anthropological objects.
Candidates are expected to develop their research in co-construction with the scientific team of the Mucem. This collective dimension should be explained in the project, highlighting the methods and working modes envisaged for this immersive collaboration.
The project should align with one of the following three axes:
- Artistic writing on an ethnographic field: collaboration in ongoing investigations and collections at the Mucem (open to artists only).
A portion of the Mucem’s funds consists of ongoing investigations and collections. It involves conducting ethnographic fieldwork with the actors involved, collecting representative objects, testimonies, narratives, and contextualizing documents. The fieldwork archives are deposited at the Mucem and accompany the objects entering the collections.
The artist commits to collaborating with the Mucem team to propose artistic restitutions of the fieldwork. The list and details of the projects are available upon request from aude.fanlo@mucem.org.
For the artist, the objective is to propose a sensitive writing approach to one of the ongoing investigations at the Mucem, in consultation with the scientific teams involved in these investigations. The project can draw on an analysis of documentary resources already present in the Mucem’s reserves and should address the following questions: How to translate gestures, testimonies, spaces, and relationships in the investigation? How to make objects speak? What are the possible enunciations? What place should emotions have in these enunciations? What level of distance is appropriate? What complementarities and interactions exist between artistic gestures, ethnographic collections, and museum heritage?
The project should also outline a concrete methodology for artistic collection in connection with field observations, adaptable to one of the ongoing investigations.
- Artistic research for proposing an artwork in one of the outdoor spaces of Fort Saint-Jean (open to artists only)
The architectural project and museographic program of the Mucem are based on a physical and symbolic connection between the historic monument of Fort Saint-Jean and the newly built J4 building. Fort Saint-Jean was renovated by François Botton, chief architect of Historical Monuments, C+T architecture/Roland Carta, associate architect, and for the gardens, by Agence APS, Jean-Louis Knidel. The total area is 15,000 m2, including 12,000 m2 of outdoor spaces, including the Jardin des migrations. It includes the Mucemlab, the Mucem’s research and training center, as well as exhibition spaces. This place, open to visitors free of charge, combines heritage history and contemporary cultural offerings.
An artistic research residency is proposed for Fort Saint-Jean. This research will be based on the centuries-old history of the site, whose oldest remains date back to the 12th century, and which has undergone successive phases of construction and use. It will consider the relationship between the scientific and cultural project, particularly in its contemporary dimension, with the Mucem collections, with the site’s local roots, and with current cultural uses and visitor practices.
The aim of the residency is to imagine, through formal research on the site, possible artistic interventions on the site following the Mucem / Iméra residency, which will be submitted to Mucem for examination.
- Transcribing documentary data into an exhibition (open to artists and academic researchers)
The Mucem is a museum of society and cultural anthropology that intersects ethnography, art history, contemporary art, and history. This interdisciplinary dimension is reflected in the collections and exhibitions of various typologies within these different fields (so-called popular art objects, ethnographic objects, everyday use objects, artworks, and contemporary creations), with the aim of dehierarchizing categories. Contextualization of objects is necessary in an anthropological and historical approach. By proposing a critical reflection supported by an analysis of diverse curatorial experiences, this axis aims to define possible ways to transcribe scientific research data into museum exhibition paths (sensitive captions, alternative cartographies and chronologies, audiovisuals, artistic expressions of statistical data, testimonies, field notebooks, etc.).
Contact: Please contact Aude Fanlo, Head of Research and Education Department at the Mucem, aude.fanlo@mucem.org, and Constance Moréteau, Scientific Coordinator at Iméra and Head of Arts-Sciences Development, constance.moreteau@univ-amu.fr, prior to submitting your application.
Exchange on current Mucem projects is required to enable interactions as fruitful as possible with the institution and its intellectual community.
Application deadline: October 16, 2023, 1 PM (french time)
Duration of the residency: 5 months
Residency period: from September, 2 2024 to January 31, 2025
To be eligible, applicants must meet the following criteria:
– For scientists:
- Not to have lived in France more than 12 months during the three years preceding this call for applications.
- Hold a Doctorate or PhD.
- Possess an employment contract (permanent or not) in a foreign university or research institution during the residency.
– For artists:
- Not to have lived in France more than 12 months during the three years preceding this call for applications.
- No pre-requirements of diploma or employment contract.
Scientists remuneration:
Junior: €2,000 monthly allowance
Senior: €3,000 monthly allowance
Are considered juniors, scientists who, at the closing date of the call for applications, have full-time postdoctoral research experience ranging between 2 to 9 years.
Are considered seniors, scientists with minimum 10 years’ experience in full-time research after obtaining the PhD as at the closing date of the call for applications, and university professors.
Residents will also benefit from paid travel expenses and free accommodation on Iméra premises.
Artists remuneration:
Artists will receive €2,000 monthly allowance or salary (depending on their candidate status).
Residents will also benefit from paid travel expenses and free accommodation on Iméra premises.
Application assessment criteria include, but are not limited to:
- Candidate’s history.
- The scientific or artistic project; on the basis of its originality and rigor, risk-taking and the potential for experimentation, the place given to collaboration, making the most of opportunities within the intellectual community of Iméra (residents and scientific team) and the Aix-Marseille University, while actively contributing to its animation.
- The interdisciplinary approach; on the basis of a proven practice and a project where it is practicable.
- Interaction perspective with Mucem and Aix-Marseille labs.
Online applications must include the following supporting documents:
- A duly completed application form (mandatory fields);
- A curriculum vitae including a list of publications for scientists, and / or former works for artists and heritage and museum professionals.
- A presentation of the project (maximum 5 pages) followed by a selective bibliography (compulsory for scientists) or a list of artistic and scientific references (compulsory for artists).
The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem) is a national museum located in Marseille. Europe and the Mediterranean are considered from the perspective of human and social sciences and art. Emphasis is placed on circulation and exchanges on a Euro-Mediterranean scale, on changes in our societies and on sensitive issues, as well as on contemporary re-readings of ordinary or informal cultures and practices (technical cultures, doing, representations and imaginations, productions and expressions little or not institutionalized). The Mucem develops, by immersing researchers in the museum, research projects applied to the materiality of objects, to the history or enrichment of collections, to the relationship with the public, to the writing of the exhibition, to artistic creation. The mechanisms supporting this approach are of different types: CIFRE doctorates, post-doctorates in partnership with the EHESS and the SoMuM Institute of Aix-Marseille University, temporary research missions and residencies for CNRS or university staff. The Mucem also organizes, with the Camargo Foundation and Iméra, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) of Aix-Marseille University, exploratory residencies for artistic or museological research.