“This was the history of Marseille .... a place where anyone, of any color, could get off a boat or a train, with his suitcase in his hand, penniless in his pocket, and mingle with the flow of others. A city where, as soon as he put his foot on the ground, that person could say: Here I am. This is home!”. 

Jan Claude Izzo . 

Marseille is one of the most populous and multi-ethnic cities in France, a place of passage, in constant evolution, full of contrasts and contradictions: young, colorful, welcoming, intense and at the same time hard, chaotic, pungent like the Mistral, the cold wind that crosses it during the winter days.

In 2013 Marseille was crowned European Capital of Culture, together with the Slovak city Kosice, and this further changed its face. During that year it hosted a program rich in cultural initiatives and events that involved the whole territory of Provence. Marseille-Provence 2013 presented itself as an opportunity for urban modernization of the city and to re-evaluate its image.

However, not all the colorful people of Marseille were in favor of the event. In fact, alongside those who saw in MP 2013 new job and economic possibilities, there is also a large portion of the population that has always denounced its management and property speculation.

Among the discontented people the majority were young independent artists, managers of the small theaters and small associations of Marseille, who have survived for years only thanks to their tenacity and passion. They are the soul of Marseille's culture, the result of continuous multi-ethnic influences and contaminations. A culture that comes from the bottom, from the streets, from that "rue" which Kany Arcana (famous Marseille's rap singer) often speaks about in the lyrics of her songs. The most recurring complaint is that while on the one hand the Municipality denies aid and support to artists and small associations (among others the cultural association Kuzca forced to close its headquarters due to lack of subsidies), on the other the European funds for MP 2013 were destined for expensive building constructions, the progressive cementing of entire neighborhoods and large sporadic events that gave most of the space more to artists from outside the city.