Exhibition

November 23, 2025 – January 18, 2026
Public opening on Saturday, November 22, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Galerie La Salle des Machines, Friche la Belle de Mai

A Walk in Marseille [Balade à Marseille] is a collective film, and the exhibition A Lion Armed with a Caduceus — a title inspired by the city’s coat of arms — presents its conception process.

Directed in 2025 by Léandre Humbert, A Walk in Marseille was written at the end of 2024 by Djayssen Ouchene in collaboration with Louka Ananti, Nadir Boudjillouli, Yacine Djerbara, Adam Doudane, and Mathias Nkaoua — then part of the participating audience of the national contemporary art center Triangle-Astérides, alongside Alicia Salicetti and Djena Siby. They were the very first to take part in this unprecedented co-programming initiative, designed to bring to light the blind spots of the art center. Indeed, depending on who is responsible for programming — their background, specific interests, or positionality — curatorial choices necessarily differ.
After a period of immersion within Triangle-Astérides, the 2024 participating audience pointed out the absence of manga in the center’s usual programming. Yet, whether on paper or on screen, this cultural form was a shared reference for the entire group. It is also a field widely explored by many contemporary artists — including Omar Castillo Alfaro, Neïla Czermak Ichti (Associate Artist at Triangle-Astérides in 2024), Rayane Mcirdi, and Ludovic Sauvage, among others.

Drawing upon the imagination and aesthetics of manga — enriched by the distinctive stylistic contributions of filmmaker Léandre Humbert — affirms a grounding in popular culture while connecting intimate narratives to a global visual language. In this case, it is their city that the screenwriters of A Walk in Marseille wished to depict — for the first time within the formal universe of animated manga. What emerges is an affective geography, a sensitive journey through Marseille, its imaginaries, and its contrasts.