Sound installation
STATEMENT
On October 11, 2015, the Assemblée de la Plaine (AdP) leaked a plan for the transformation of the Place Jean Jaurès in Marseille, which would cost 12 million euros. Thus began a battle to assert the opinion of the people and to be part of the decisions for the transformation of public areas. The questioning of how public spaces are managed and what role the inhabitants play became one of the major points of debate for the PfP.
In pursuit of reactivating this space, the PfP created several projects, such as La Table est Plaine, which consisted of building and setting up some tables and benches in the square. On May 30, 2016, police authorities went to the square to dismantle the objects placed on the Plaine. The inhabitants of the neighborhood tried to prevent it, but the violent action of the power ended in an intense retaliation against the demonstrators. Tear gas and truncheons were used to destroy the furniture installed. A few days later, the citizens of AdP, with the help of the residents of the Plaine, rebuilt the furniture, but on a larger scale, and with a larger call than the previous time. Eventually, these too were destroyed and the authorities implemented their transformation plans.
The artist built a bench of identical design with the help of the Plaine neighbors who participated in the aforementioned action. He also summoned several graffiti artists from the city to reconstruct the bench painting interventions and incorporated an audio narration of the events and the actual sound of the clash of powers incident of May 30, 2016. Only when the visitor in the gallery space rested on the bench, the audio tracks containing the sound record of the events were activated.
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