Due to weather conditions, the show originally scheduled to take place at Fort Saint-Jean will now be held at the Mucem auditorium.
The Mucem hosts Mères Méditerranées, a performance show featuring the stories of Mediterranean women and mothers.
As part of the Saison Méditerranée 2026 and echoing the “Bonnes Mères” exhibition, Mohamed El Khatib returns to the Mucem with a new show-performance combining film, installation and open-air theatrical choir.
Born from the meeting of mothers from Marseille’s Mediterranean diasporas, this living choir will give voice to a polyphony of experiences from Marseille’s women – mothers whose voices are not usually heard. In the Mediterranean, there is indeed a sea, but above all there is a chorus of mothers. And this maternal choir, of a certain generation, has often been relegated to silence.
In a gesture that is both intimate and political, the aim is to bring out the words of these women who carry, raise, lose, transmit, protect, laugh, exile and resist, to collect their stories, gestures and silences, and to compose an affective cartography of the Mediterranean.
The performance will bring together twenty-three women from Marseilles, from twenty-three countries around the Mediterranean, to lend a body and a voice to this geographical space perceived as a place of piracy. This idea lends itself well to the lives of many women who have had to demonstrate ingenuity and inventiveness, sometimes clandestinely, to assert their place in the various societies that border the Mediterranean.
By evoking the sea as a space of passage, danger or memory, the project resonates deeply with Mucem’s mission: to give a voice to the peoples of the contemporary Mediterranean, and to link its shores through creation.
An event organized as part of the Mediterranean Season 2026.
Practical information:
Entry will be permitted only from the J4 esplanade
7:30 p.m. Doors open
9:00 pm show starts
With a bar and light meals available on site
Cast and Credits
With 23 mothers from Marseille.
Design: Mohamed El Khatib
Set Design and Artistic Collaboration: Fred Hocké
Artistic, Documentary, and Pyrotechnic Collaboration: PAL/SECAM (Cathy Blisson + Amaury Vanderborght)
Video: Zacharie Dutertre
Artistic Collaboration and Coordination: Charline Ben Larbi, Elsa Broclain, Julien Lewkowicz.
Stage management and sound: Arnaud Léger
Production management: Gil Paon, assisted by Cécile Boursier and Matis Hernandez
Administration: Lucie MacéSpecial thanks to Culture sans Frontière Marseille, Regards Citoyens, Iva Compagny on behalf of Iva Compagny, 13 Solidaires, Partir loin 13, Association Parents Femmes en Actions, Singa Marseille, and Les petits Violons des Calanques.
Due to weather conditions, the show originally scheduled to take place at Fort Saint-Jean will now be held at the Mucem auditorium.
The Mucem hosts Mères Méditerranées, a performance show featuring the stories of Mediterranean women and mothers.
As part of the Saison Méditerranée 2026 and echoing the “Bonnes Mères” exhibition, Mohamed El Khatib returns to the Mucem with a new show-performance combining film, installation and open-air theatrical choir.
Born from the meeting of mothers from Marseille’s Mediterranean diasporas, this living choir will give voice to a polyphony of experiences from Marseille’s women – mothers whose voices are not usually heard. In the Mediterranean, there is indeed a sea, but above all there is a chorus of mothers. And this maternal choir, of a certain generation, has often been relegated to silence.
In a gesture that is both intimate and political, the aim is to bring out the words of these women who carry, raise, lose, transmit, protect, laugh, exile and resist, to collect their stories, gestures and silences, and to compose an affective cartography of the Mediterranean.
The performance will bring together twenty-three women from Marseilles, from twenty-three countries around the Mediterranean, to lend a body and a voice to this geographical space perceived as a place of piracy. This idea lends itself well to the lives of many women who have had to demonstrate ingenuity and inventiveness, sometimes clandestinely, to assert their place in the various societies that border the Mediterranean.
By evoking the sea as a space of passage, danger or memory, the project resonates deeply with Mucem’s mission: to give a voice to the peoples of the contemporary Mediterranean, and to link its shores through creation.
An event organized as part of the Mediterranean Season 2026.
Practical information:
Entry will be permitted only from the J4 esplanade
7:30 p.m. Doors open
9:00 pm show starts
With a bar and light meals available on site
Cast and Credits
With 23 mothers from Marseille.
Design: Mohamed El Khatib
Set Design and Artistic Collaboration: Fred Hocké
Artistic, Documentary, and Pyrotechnic Collaboration: PAL/SECAM (Cathy Blisson + Amaury Vanderborght)
Video: Zacharie Dutertre
Artistic Collaboration and Coordination: Charline Ben Larbi, Elsa Broclain, Julien Lewkowicz.
Stage management and sound: Arnaud Léger
Production management: Gil Paon, assisted by Cécile Boursier and Matis Hernandez
Administration: Lucie MacéSpecial thanks to Culture sans Frontière Marseille, Regards Citoyens, Iva Compagny on behalf of Iva Compagny, 13 Solidaires, Partir loin 13, Association Parents Femmes en Actions, Singa Marseille, and Les petits Violons des Calanques.
An event organized as part of the Mediterranean 2026 season
