Marion Ellena Mise en lame (tu te souviens de la couleur de ma chambre) 2025, courtesy of the artist, sissi club
An essential part of Marseille’s cultural ecosystem, sissi club strengthens ties with art-o-rama. For the 19th edition of the fair, the gallery presents a duo show featuring Amalia Laurent and Marion Ellena.
True to its spirit of constant reinvention, sissi Club is also launching a new format for promoting and supporting artistic creation: Collective Matter. This innovative project functions as both an exhibition and an artist residency within the gallery space itself, bringing together seven emblematic artists who represent the richness and reach of Marseille’s contemporary art scene.
In an interview, founders Elise Poitevin and Anne Vimeux delve into the thinking behind this initiative. Their pioneering vision has allowed them to establish a flexible and sustainable model- one that has gained international traction through participation in influential fairs such as Liste Basel, Material Art Fair Mexico, ARCO Madrid, and Paris Internationale- while maintaining a deep connection to their local roots. They reflect on the key moments that shaped this unique adventure.
Elise Poitevin & Anne Vimeux, sissi club copyright Marion Ellena
Marie. As part of the 2025 edition of Art-o-rama, you’re presenting a duo show featuring Amalia Laurent and Marion Ellena. What are the stakes of this exhibition?
Elise and Anne. This year, we’re indeed presenting a duo show by Amalia Laurent and Marion Ellena. The stakes are twofold: first, to introduce their work to the fair’s audience for the very first time; and second, to explore a more monumental and committed curatorial approach within this specific context.
Amalia works with batik, an ancient Indonesian dyeing technique, which she expands into large-scale textiles that become architectural walls or translucent filters. In resonance, we’re showing the work of Marion Ellena for the first time, a Franco-Peruvian photographer, born in Venezuela and now based in Marseille.
The exhibition is titled Sedimental Feelings, a phrase borrowed from Marion that evokes memory, archives, and imprint, concepts that are central to both artists’ practices.
Exhibition view Collective Matter, courtesy sissi club
You’re currently presenting Collective Matter, a new way of supporting artistic creation by sharing the gallery space with the artists themselves. How did this unique project come about, and what are its key features ?
We launched Collective Matter on July 4, and the exhibition will reopen after the summer break on August 27. It brings together seven artists : Ash Love, Aurélien Potier, Basile Ghosn, Claude Eigan, Jessy Razafimandimby, Sarah Woodhouse, and Wilder Alison, each of whom has had a studio at SISSI Club for the past year.
This model, welcoming artists into a gallery, sharing the space and working conditions, is still relatively rare, but it’s a natural extension of our project, which began as both a cultural association and a gallery. Opening up the studios responds to a very real need for workspaces in Marseille, while also reinforcing the collective mission at the heart of our association.
Since the beginning, we’ve been exploring alternatives to a fragile funding system. By pooling resources and sharing our space, we’ve arrived at a sustainable model: one room is dedicated to exhibitions, while the rest functions as studios. It’s a shared structure, materially, financially, and intellectually.
Basile Ghosn, Untitled (Enfonce-toi dans la ville) (2025), dyeing, screen printing, aluminum and colorex on canvas. courtesy of the artist picture (c) sissi club Exhibition view Collective Matter
Collective Matter also reflects the strong ties you maintain with the broader Marseille ecosystem. Can you tell us more?
The studios operate on a one-year commitment. For this first edition, the group came together organically—through personal connections and word of mouth.
This gathering of seven artists maps out a portrait of the Marseille art scene. It brings together trajectories that have helped shape the city: Basile through his involvement with Belsunce Projects and Panthera; Aurélien, one of the first artists to work with sissi club; Sarah, who arrived in 2019 during a new wave of studio openings; Jessy and Ash, both settling in Marseille in 2024; and Claude and Wilder, who relocated from Berlin and New York respectively to anchor their practices here.
It’s a constantly evolving scene, one that keeps reinventing itself, and which has remained vibrantly alive for nearly a decade.
Claude Eigan, Alices (2025), ceramic, acrylic paint, steel courtesy of the artist Picture (c) sissi club, exhibition view Collective Matter
Since the founding of sissi and sissi club, you’ve managed to create an innovative model. What are the key factors behind this long-term success?
Our model was born out of necessity. Faced with an unpredictable public funding landscape and an uneven art market, we had to invent our own way of operating. From the beginning, SISSI has positioned itself as an experimental, intuitive space—one that refuses to draw rigid lines between gallery and association, or between production and presentation.
We chose to focus on resource-sharing, solidarity, and open dialogue with artists, rather than competition. This alternative approach has allowed us to endure, to stay flexible, and to continuously imagine new solutions—instead of conforming to a framework that didn’t quite fit us.
What have been the key milestones in this adventure ?
The story began in 2017, when we met during our Master’s in Art History. In 2019, at the end of our studies, we founded the association and launched a series of projects—exhibitions, concerts, readings—collaborating with many emerging artists.
Between 2020 and 2021, we initiated partnerships with other European project spaces, including one in Athens, where we traveled and exchanged ideas. In 2022, we took part in our first fair, presenting Inès Di Folco Jemni at Art-o-rama.
From 2023 onward, we fully embraced the gallery model and began participating in major art fairs. Then came 2024, a pivotal year: we opened our new space, launched the studio program, and joined prestigious fairs such as Material in Mexico City, Liste in Basel, and Paris Internationale.
In 2025, we took things a step further by choosing to share our programming with another structure: Gemini Season, founded by curator Christina Gigliotti. Her first curatorial project will be unveiled on October 1.
How would you each describe Marseille, your hometown, in a few words?
We don’t feel entirely legitimate in trying to “describe Marseille” in general terms—there are so many overlapping and diverse stories here. What we can say is that it’s the city where we were born, where we’re rooted, and the place that made the creation of sissi club possible.
The art scene here is vibrant but not oversaturated. It’s a city full of contrasts, where things are often built spontaneously, through a kind of DIY ethos that closely reflects today’s realities of artistic production.
Practical Info :
art-o-rama 2025
Hours
Friday, August 29, 2025
11am – 5pm: VIP Preview for VIP Cardholders
5pm – 8pm: Opening via invitation
Saturday, August 30, 2025
2pm – 8pm
Sunday, August 31st, 2025
2pm – 8pm
Tickets
Salon Art-o-rama + every exhibition at la Friche
Full price – 12 €
Reduced rate – 8 €
Book your ticket directly on la Friche’s website !
Location
La Tour 3rd floor, La Cartonnerie, le petit Plateau
Friche la Belle de Mai
https://art-o-rama.fr/type/gallery
Currently at the gallery :
« Collective Matter »
With : Ash Love, Aurélien Potier, Basile Ghosn, Claude Eigan, Jessy Razafimandimby, Sarah Woodhouse, Wilder Alison.
16 cours Joseph Thierry,
13001 Marseille
