Urban Transformation and Culture: A Case Study on the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean

The Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (Mucem) opened in 2013, during the consecration of Marseille as the European Cultural Capital. As one of the few national museums located outside the Parisian region, its relocation to the south of France raises important questions: What motivated the relocation of a museum whose collections were not initially linked to Marseille or the Mediterranean? Over a decade later, what have been the effects on its surrounding neighbourhoods, and how is the museum perceived by its nearby residents and merchants?

This research draws on archive work (museum records, political discourses) to trace the genealogy of the Mucem. These findings will be contextualised within the broader urban mythologies portraying Marseille as a city of migration and crime. Additionally, qualitative fieldwork, including photo elicitation with nearby merchants, will be used to understand how the museum is perceived and used ten years after its opening.

The findings reveal that local perceptions of the museum are inseparable from the broader urban transformations of the neighbourhood in the past ten years, such as increased tourism, social housing evictions in Le Panier and Joliette, and reduced access to the sea due to new infrastructure.

Furthermore, the museum’s efforts to meet national museum standards (while being an outsider), and responding to Marseille’s sociopolitical context and specific needs tend to create aesthetic contradictions. These contradictions manifest in the museum’s architecture, in its programming (blending contemporary art within exhibitions about civilizations, a focus on fine arts in terms of workshops), and reflected back by neighbours’ blurry perceptions of the museum as either a modern art space or a historical institution.