Running until 26th April 2026, the Château de La Buzine in Marseille features Marsiho e la Mar, an exhibition that pulses with the rhythm of the Mediterranean.

Château de La Buzine occupies a singular place in Marseille’s cultural landscape. Built in 1867 and immortalised by Marcel Pagnol, the writer and filmmaker who called it home, it appears in Le Château de ma Mère and countless recollections of the city’s landscapes and lives. Rediscovering the place he feared so much as a kid, and ironically acquiring it later in his life, Pagnol dreamed of transforming it into a Provençal studio that could rival Hollywood. The vision never fully materialised but left an indelible mark: a sense of Marseille as a place where cinema, storytelling, and regional identity exist in constant motion.

Marsiho e la Mar gathers over 200 works and objects, paintings, prints, ceramics, photographs, postcards, everyday artifacts, each a fragment of the city’s life along the sea. The exhibition flows from the Old Port to the surrounding harbours, tracing the footsteps of fishermen, the calls of fishmongers, and even the aromas and ceramics of bouillabaisse wafting from the kitchens of Marseille. The short introductory film highlights some of Marseille’s most amazing areas and their histories, from Valon des Auffes, its Old Port and Les Calanques.

Among the highlights is a stunning series of black-and-white photographs of fishermen at Vallon des Auffes, capturing the rhythm of life at sea and along the Provençal coast with extraordinary focus. These images reinterpret the daily labour and rituals of maritime life.

The scenography mirrors the fluidity of the sea itself. Visitors move through Marseille’s maritime world as participants in a shared experience, tracing the currents of identity and imagination that bind the city to the Mediterranean.

The château continues to embrace the spirit of creative participation in remarkable ways. In 2024 and 2025, Michel Gondry’s “L’Usine de Films Amateurs” transformed the space into a hands-on cinema laboratory. Visitors of all ages wrote, filmed, and edited their own short films in just three hours, celebrating play, invention, and collaboration. Kids loved it. Hundreds of films were born in the château’s rooms, accompanied by retrospectives of Gondry’s work and masterclasses with filmmakers, reinforcing La Buzine’s reputation as a laboratory for cinematic imagination.

Marseille itself is an essential part of the story. The city may only be France’s second largest, but it has a vitality all its own, sunshine, seafood, a slower pace, and a port-city grit that feels authentic and alive. Beneath its historic streets, a vibrant music, fashion, and social scene is flourishing, drawing artists, designers, and creatives from across Europe. The rising art scene here is palpable: many contemporary artists are choosing Marseille as their base, inspired by its light.

Beyond Marsiho e la Mar, La Buzine’s calendar brims with activity: workshops, screenings, lectures, and family-oriented programmes that invite audiences to explore the story of the sea. A must-see in Provence right now.