FAD Magazine FAD Magazine covers contemporary art – News Exhibitions and Interviews reported on from London Laure Prouvost to present two distinctive works in Marseille, at the Centre de la Vieille Charité she will create a monumental installation for the chapel inspired by its architecture and the voices of its past and present inhabitants the [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseille will showcase They Parlaient Idéale a film originally created for the 2019 Venice Biennale offering another perspective on Prouvost’s artistic explorations The Museums of Marseille continue their tradition of inviting internationally recognized contemporary artists to create new works for the chapel at the Centre de la Vieille Charité serves as a space where past and present come together through art Following previous installations by Ghada Amer (2023) whose work is set to make a deep impression in this remarkable setting Prouvost transforms the chapel into an immersive experience with a large-scale visual and sound installation Inspired by the building’s architecture and the generations who have passed through it—including today’s residents of the Panier district—her work takes on a dreamlike quality inviting visitors to reconnect with lost memories and untold stories Created in partnership with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Conservatoire of Marseille the installation incorporates underwater themes Prouvost offers a poetic tribute to shared and personal histories bridging past and present in a way that feels both intimate and universal This project is part of the City of Marseille’s broader effort to support contemporary art and breathe new life into historical sites the [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseille will showcase They Parlaient Idéale in the [mac]room originally created for the French Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale capturing a playful and adventurous journey From the suburbs of Paris to northern France passing through the whimsical Palais du Facteur Cheval and the stunning Calanques of Marseille blending fiction and reality along the way Laure Prouvost , Mère We Sea, From April 2nd, 2025 to January 11th, 2026, Chapelle du Centre de la Vieille Charité Laure Prouvost, *They Parlaient Idéale, May 17th, 2025 (European Night of Museums) – January 11th [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseille imagined by Laure Prouvost for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale Mark Westall is the Founder and Editor of FAD magazine - The show brings together a group of important paintings including loans from major institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art This special exhibition celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women – one of the most important awards supporting women-identified artists one of the UK’s leading contemporary art festivals has shared the full line-up of artists for its highly anticipated sixth edition The first site-specific installation for the Light Hall in Norway’s new National Museum has been unveiled by Laure Prouvost Join the FAD newsletter and get the latest news and articles straight to your inbox The articles started coming thick and fast from early July onwards. Liber Pater had officially become the most expensive modern Bordeaux wine, with its 2015 vintage on sale at €30,000 a bottle And as ever with stories around Liber Pater I was torn somewhere between admiring owner Loïc Pasquet for his chutzpah/audacity/confidence I read several pieces that said this was the highest altitude vineyard in Bordeaux and the wine was purely made from pre-Phylloxera ancient grape varieties no longer used in the Bordeaux vineyard there were articles suggesting that 2015 Liber Pater offers the true taste of Bordeaux in 1855 I finally made it back down to the vineyard towards the end of August was to try to cut through the hype and see what was actually going on I left feeling for the first time that I was getting closer to understanding the reality of project Liber Pater comes from 100% ungrafted vines and that it uses farming methods rarely seen in the region I have walked through the vineyard several times over the past few years and it is looking healthy and happily wild right now Its certified organic vines are left in permaculture as much as possible This makes the 20,000 vines-per-hectare density – equal to a distance between rows of 60cm and between each vine of 80cm – easier to understand because it means you can walk they are not the only ones in Bordeaux to do this is among the producers to have vines at the same density One of the first producers in Bordeaux to popularise training vines along wires was Marcel Richier the agronomist owner of Château d’Agassac in the mid 19th century and it was called the Agassac Method for a while This means that Pasquet can also fairly claim that he is recreating the traditional method used to cultivate vines; a technique practised not just in 18th century Bordeaux But that’s not to say you should buy wholesale into the hype and should be congratulated for it in my opinion but it is simply not the case that the wine is made up of grapes that are no longer found in Bordeaux The blend of the 2015 vintage that is being offered – all 200 bottles of it – for such large sums of money is almost entirely Cabernet Sauvignon But he refers to it under its old name Petite-Vidure just as Lafleur refers to its massal-selected Cabernet Franc as Bouchet to underline its difference from modern clones At Liber Pater, this is put together with small amounts of Petit Verdot and Malbec and around 2% of the rare varieties – mainly Castets will have a little more of the rare varieties but will still be dominated by ungrafted Cabernet Sauvignon The Cabernet from different parts of the vineyard is being aged separately a development since the early years that is thoroughly sensible so you can track the taste without oak interference Tasting them ‘blind’ revealed them to be in the Cabernet family but not like the more classic Cabernet of today They had a delicacy and a vibrancy to them that was genuinely exciting and it’s a shame that the price puts them out of reach of But do a little digging and you can see Liber Pater as a signpost towards a host of other projects happening right now in Bordeaux that give an insight into the 19th century vineyard and its wines – without the price tag Estates planting rare grape varieties include Clos Puy Arnaud in Castillon which has Mancin and Castets from massal selection that will make up 2% of the vineyard in the next few years Château de la Vieille Chapelle in Bordeaux has Bouchalès Château Le Puy in Francs Côtes de Bordeaux and Château de Claribès in St-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux are currently deciding which ones to plant I’m also looking forward to trying the 100% Castets and 100% Mancin bottlings that Liber Pater has planned under the name Liberi Bellaria in the years to come You can also find pre-Phylloxera Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes up at Clos Manou in the Médoc in their stunning cuvée 1850 that is one of the best wines I have tasted all year It’s priced at less than €30 from the estate Then there is Haut-Bailly with its four-hectare plot of 1890s grapes that goes into the first wine every year It is a collection of rare genetic material of Cabernet Franc all mixed up together in the rows as they would have been in the 19th century Some American rootstock has been added to protect against phylloxera Trottevielle has more than 3,000 ungrafted Cabernet Franc vines from the 1890s that have been bottled as a separate cuvée since 2004 Château de la Vieille Chapelle is one of the most advanced in its rare grape project Right back in 2009 they used DNA analysis to identify the Bouchalès grape from a small plot of pre-Phylloxera vines In 2014 they carried out a full study of the 400 vines in the same plot and discovered 11 forgotten varieties including one unidentified hybrid Since 2016 this has expanded into a project of massal selection that has involved replanting with a focus on five varieties over two hectares with the first plants in this year and the debut harvest expected in 2021 such as the estate’s ‘C’est Bon Le Vin’ bottling 25% Merlot and 10% other rare Bordeaux grapes when the winemaking team believed the ungrafted vines to be Merlot and Petit Verdot called Bouchalès-Merlot to reflect the blend This is vinified in cement vats and then aged in 400-litre ‘We’re interested in exploring whether these old grape varieties might be useful in the 21st century fight against climate change,’ Fabienne Mallier of La Vieille Chapelle told me ‘We already know that intensive production is damaging soils and vines and it’s worth questioning whether grafting is adding to the increase in vine disease.’ which has been owned since 2016 by Jean-Baptiste Duquesne He works with respected biodynamic winemaker David Poutays They have plans here to add up to 25 forgotten varieties to release under the name ‘Cépage d’Antan’ These are surely sensible questions, surely worth looking at before planting ‘new’ varieties that have never been seen in Bordeaux but are currently in discussion for Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur It’s heartening to see that the spirit of innovation in Bordeaux is alive and well And if Loïc Pasquet and Liber Pater has convinced even one or two winemakers that there is a future in this Seok-Woo Song — Photos exploring the pressures and loneliness of life in Korea Federico Borella & Michela Balboni — Photographing rural Italy’s “tree men” AikBeng Chia — Recreating vivid scenes from 1970s Singapore with the help of AI WePresent is the arts platform of WeTransfer.The simplest way to send big files A platform to empower creatives while using business as a force for good Rachel Akoun is a street photographer unapologetically in love with her own city. At only 25, she’s developed her style by zeroing in on well-known Marseille landmarks and epic landscapes, revealing a talent for framing, textures and light. Here she takes writer Anaïs Brémond—and you—on a tour around six of her favorite spots through her lens Photographer Rachel Akoun got her start in the medium following tips from two Japanese brothers running Photo République “One day I found my grandfather’s Yashica Mat-124 and another workshop nearby rebuilt it from scratch.” Self-taught and spontaneous rather than theory-focused she turns her lens to the beautiful coastal city she calls home; both a picture-perfect summer destination and the mundane backdrop to locals’ everyday life Her solitary wanderings have strictly brought her to the 6th postcard friendly parts of Marseille along the Mediterranean coast all the way down to Les Goudes and the Calanques national park Rachel is well aware that her images tell only a part of the city’s story—and that there is beauty elsewhere “I would love to photograph central and north Marseille but I haven’t had the opportunity yet,” she explains “I would find it more difficult to shoot there by myself This separation is not unusual—many locals have simply never been to or avoid large swathes of the city which are either inaccessible or misunderstood Marseille only has four metro and tram lines Rachel’s focus on the elements that bring all Marseillais together—dramatic skies games of petanque and football fandom—bridges these disconnects without touching upon them With Rachel's favourite photographs we discover the city through her lens; a photogenic and romantic view on a gorgeous city You can’t miss Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde church Built in the late 19th Century in place of a fort the protector of the city and sailors watches over town—so high up you can see it from everywhere Real locals prefer to drive up: “I’ve never walked up the stairs in my whole life,” laughs Rachel The inside of the basilica is a golden feast but it’s a local sitting on a bench that caught Rachel’s eye The statue of Jesus and Veronica by the sculptor Auguste Carli and a corner of the football pitch down the hill I had woken up early to buy a football club membership and failed so I decided to go up the top,” she says I really was focused on the woman on her phone and wanted to immortalize that moment.” The cream-coloured spaceship-looking stadium is a sacred symbol of the city So sacred in fact the word Paris won’t be displayed anywhere on it during the upcoming Olympic games (in light of the club’s bitter rivalry with PSG.) Rachel comes to the Rond Point du Prado often as she has a season ticket and never misses a game “My parents came from Tunisia in the late 70s and are not really into football I got the bug through my friends,” she says especially in the winter when we meet up to drink the apéro—it just brings a special energy to Marseille.” The die-hard fans of Olympique de Marseille feature often in Rachel’s work This perfectly composed shot highlights the level of coordination between football fans The Winners' fan club organised this for International Women’s Day and as a female supporter that’s a very important message.” This image feels even more special as there’s a no phone rule in the stadium “Supporters tell you to put your phone down you’re here to be in the moment,” she explains “This was taken just outside the Velodrome I don’t even remember if we won the game or not It represents the rivalry between Paris and Marseille; there’s a lot of provocation I just loved the contrasting colors between the Marseille blue jersey and the flares; when the orange smoke came I knew I had to shoot it.” a private members club for military and their families a lot of the prime locations along the coast are closed off and owned by soldiers This doesn’t stop hundreds of young people from climbing and jumping from rocks This picture was taken near the Marégraphe a sea observatory with a mechanical tide gauge an important place to measure the rising sea levels due to global warming This place is a favourite spot amongst the plongeurs ‘I wanted to photograph the divers so I went down The girl jumped and the picture was perfect You feel like she’s walking or flying across a horizontal line I love the fact she’s wearing glitter golden goose—not adapted at all through a maze of windy streets off the Corniche (the main road along the sea) you’ll find a small fisherman’s port called Malmousque This neighborhood is highly popular in the summer where tourists and locals alike scramble for a spot on sharp rocks surrounding the turquoise water except in the early morning; there are way too many people,” confessees Rachel A woman had gone swimming and had left her towel I really wanted to bring out the contrast between the deep sea tones and the golden light on the rocks because 30 seconds later the towel fell down.” You’ll (probably) love our monthly newsletter The Roucas Blanc hill—meaning white rock in provençal—became famous in the 19th Century for its hot springs which in turn attracted the local bourgeoisie who still live there and more greenery than anywhere in the city it has a privileged vantage point over the Med it’s “the Beverly hills of Marseille.” This island of calm is also highly protected and hostile with walls covered with broken glass to detract trespassers Local poet and activist Mariam Benbakkar often writes about the Roucas Blanc and the many street names still honoring France’s imperial past Her decolonial tours highlight the many private streets of Marseille “This was taken in the middle of the day from the fish restaurant Chez Aldo The clouds and the light were mythical; I really enjoy bad weather I waited for thirty minutes for the sun to hit La Bonne Mère I know a few spots on the Roucas where you can chill This photograph was taken on Avenue de Montredon near Pointe Rouge An authentic neighborhood with one of the biggest ports There’s a real small village feel Rachel adores Older men are at the center of Rachel’s work She admires elders who embody the provencal soul of Marseille—warm “I speak more easily with older people,” she admits “I spotted this man putting up flags of the Olympique de Marseille on his balcony every single game night so I stopped and asked if I could shoot him “This was taken at the petanque court near Pointe Rouge, called the Terrain de Boule de la Vieille Chapelle I admire the players' lifestyle; they’re under the sun all day drinking pastis even at 2 PM in the summer heat I never dared taking their pictures before but I got motivated that one time I guess I’m quite patient - I waited 2 hours for this one I love photographing elders - the fact they’ve lived everything already One of the best viewpoints to fathom how sprawling Marseille is is from Frioul islands On the way there you can stop at the Chateau D’If a medieval prison and the main location for Alexandre Dumas’ book “The Count of Monte Cristo.” With only 150 inhabitants a few activities centers for local youth and a disused 18th Century plague hospital it is largely wild and adored for its countless creeks It’s in front of Frioul that Rachel took this electrifying picture - captured on the 26th May to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Marseille winning the Champions League hundreds of OM fans posted themselves all along the coast to light up flares at the same time Rachel hopped on her friend’s boat to document the event as far as possible one of the eldests OM supporters and a local legend lit the first flare from the top of La Bonne Mère It created a domino effect all the way down to L’Estaque and La Madrague I didn’t have the same experience as people on land—my friend told me they had chills all over their body—but I could hear screams echoing in the night Frioul was totally red; you can see the reflections on the waves This for me embodies the soul of Marseille Want (even) more WePresent?Sign up to our monthly newsletter an export manager of Spanish winery Casa Rojo made with old vines found at Chateau de la Vieille Chapelle located in Bordeaux Wines from Bodegas Veldemar are maturing in oaks The winery located in Spain makes tasty yet affordable wines Lucas © Delta Festival/FabienGencoOKEt on a déjà hâte d'y être. Parce que l'été se fait sérieusement attendre comme toutes les réjouissances qui vont avec Le Delta Festival en fait légitimement partie et donne rendez-vous à des plagistes par centaines à la plage de la Vieille Chapelle (Marseille 8e) pour deux jours de fête et de musique les pieds dans l'eau les 7 et 8 juillet Le printemps approche et c'est vrai que les annonces de festivals de l'été tombent comme des giboulées en mars Le Delta Festival a donc levé le voile sur la programmation musclée de son édition 2018 (7 & 8 juillet) et retrouvera son public toujours au bord de l'eau sur l'esplanade de la plage de la Vieille Chapelle Une publication partagée par Delta Festival (@delta_festival) le 4 Mai 2017 à 9 :41 PDT le festival accueillera pendant deux jours un "Village européen du sport" (en association avec une grande enseigne sportive) et permettra au public de s'adonner à des activités aquatiques en tous genres Il ne faut pas oublier que le Delta a lieu sur une plage et qu'il faut en profiter Mais la programmation sera aussi "musclée" parce qu'elle permettra à certains artistes techno de montrer leurs biscotos comme Paul Ritch Marc Houle ou encore l'illustre Stephan Bodzin (live) Ils seront présents parmi d'autres grands noms de la scène actuelle comme Angerfist et complétés par la présence des belges Caballero & JeanJass ou encore du grand maître Disiz La Peste c'est Etienne de Crécy et Purple Disco Machine qui sont annoncés pour le moment (le reste de la prog viendra plus tard) et nous donnent tout autant envie de nous propulser en juillet sur la plage de la Vieille Chapelle Delta Festival - samedi 7 et dimanche 8 juillet à la plage de la Vieille Chapelle (Marseille 8e)Site internet / Facebook / Instagram / Billetterie 5 festivals pour fêter le printemps en musique  Un nouveau festival électro (et gratuit) débarque à Marseille le 17 mai Festival Mars à Table : aïoli géant organisé à la Pointe Rouge