Hassen Ferhani's Enveloping Works at Château d'If Resonate Between Marseille and Algiers

At the historic Château d'If, built from 1524 to 1531 under François Ier to protect Marseille's port, Algerian artist Hassen Ferhani presents "Mon plus beau plan fixe," a new creation co-produced by the Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN) and the Institut français. The installation invites visitors to look through two windows on the second level of the Saint-Christophe tower toward Marseille or Algiers, accompanied by sounds—fragments of stories, noises, songs—in French and Arabic. Two other works complete the exhibition: the documentary "143, rue du Désert" (2019) from the collections of the Centre national des Arts plastiques (Cnap), telling the story of Malika, a woman running a roadside eatery in the Algerian desert; and the audio-only piece "Studio Baumettes" (2024), filmed with inmates at Marseille's Baumettes prison, where Ferhani chose to broadcast only the soundtrack, leaving viewers to imagine the faces. The château, transformed into a prison in 1580, fortified by Vauban in 1702, opened to the public in 1890, and classified as a Monument historique in 1926, gained fame through Alexandre Dumas's "The Count of Monte Cristo." The exhibition runs until September 20 at Château d'If, Marseille.