Aux Tableaux Residency Project in Marseille, France

Invader_Street Art in Marseille, France_PHOTO_©2015_MARK_RIGNEY

Any excuse to travel is always good for us and on this occasion, we found ourselves in the South of France and for the first time in the city of Marseille. Leaving London's chilly summer weather behind, we landed over-dressed for the 37-degree heat of Marseille.

Having received an email from the organizers with details about the Aux Tableaux project, we decided to book ourselves a flight to check out this residency project in this southern French city. Our visit to Marseille coincided with the official press launch of the Aux Tableaux residency, which opened its doors to the public mid-June.

On our arrival at the cities main train station, high on a hill overlooking the city we spied the familiar shapes of French street artist Invader on a slightly weathered bathroom tile, kick starting our adventure in this new city.

Aux Tableaux Residency Project in Marseille, France_PHOTO_©2015_MARK_RIGNEY

Located in the centre of Marseille, Aux Tableaux is a four month long show hosted in a former private catholic school which closed its door in 2012. The project invited 40 artists to take up residency at the former school, with each given a space to work on during their stay at the space.

For most of the artists partaking in the residency, this meant taking over one of the former classrooms spread across three separate school buildings on the school grounds.

One of the first works we encountered at Aux Tableaux was that of London artist Remi Rough, whose large scale work greets those on entry to the old schools courtyard. We were invited to join a number of the artists and stay at the residency for two nights during our visit to the city, staying in one of the nuns former bedrooms, still with a crucifix on the wall!

On our arrival most of the 40 artists had completed work on their space but a number were still in residence and we're putting the finishing touches to their classroom spaces. We met a number of the French collective 9eme concept who were still working on their spaces, Stephane Carricondo, Theo Lopez, NED, and Alexandre D'alessio who as well as being part of the collective curated the artist selection for the residency.

Since our visit the space has been opened to the public and all of the rooms have been finished with a series of live events planes throughout the duration of the show.