The desire to look further



The Italian artist Ilaria Turba presents the fruit of her three-year residency at the ZEF—scène nationale de Marseille: a “collection of wishes” similar to a collection of objects that she gathered during her immersion in the 14th and 15th “arrondissements” of Marseille, as well as in the imagination of its inhabitants.
Ilaria Turba is a visual artist and photographer. Her work is nourished by exchanges and collaborations that often take the form of workshops and participative creative processes around themes that are dear to her: the relationship between identity and collective imagination, as well as the relationship between the present and memory, with objects, photographs, stories and places as primary supports. In 2018, she became an associate artist at the ZEF—scène nationale de Marseille, which came about with the merger between the Merlan scène nationale and the Gare Franche artists’ centre. “The desire to look further” is one of the outcomes of this three-year residency.
For this project, Ilaria Turba worked with locals in neighbourhoods near the Merlan and the Gare Franche to collect their “wishes”. She led workshops to make ritual breads (”breads of desire”), thus giving a material form to the wishes that were collected. She also designed a “Route of Wishes”—a friendly and festive 12-kilometre course linking the Merlan theatre and the Gare Franche, which will be open to all on 12 June 2021. At the same time, in order to add to the rich collection of breads, she explored the Mucem’s collections to source a selection of lucky charms, which inspired her to create contemporary amulets that will be raffled off during the “Lottery of Wishes”—an event to precede the closing of the exhibition.
The exhibition takes place simultaneously at the Conservation and Resource Centre (CCR) and at the Fort Saint-Jean. The first part, at the CCR, is more specifically dedicated to the confrontation of the breads of desire with a selection of objects from the collection chosen by a group of workshop participants because of their formal or symbolic resonance. In the second part, at the Fort Saint-Jean, the public is invited to follow a visit route retracing the different stages of the project through installations, photographs, drawings, sound recordings, videos and posters, as well as meeting the artist to continue to create, with her, traces of these desires to look far away.
It is the object as a narrative, as a trace of the intimate, which is at the heart of Ilaria Turba’s approach, namely how to make immaterial wishes perceivable and visible.
As an extension of the exhibition presented at the Mucem, the Italian Cultural Institute of Marseille plans to present a reconstruction of Ilaria Turba’s work, and in particular the posters produced in the artist’s hut, recreated at the Fort Saint Jean.
This exhibition will be held at the Italian Cultural Institute from 9 November to 8 December 2021.
In partnership with the ZEF scène nationale de Marseille.
The exhibition is part of the Grand Arles Express under the umbrella of the Rencontres internationales de la photographie Arles 2021.
The Project is supported by the Italian Council (9th Edition 2020), a programme for the promotion of Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creation of the Italian Ministry for Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism.
Interview with Ilaria Turba, artist, and Émilie Girard, curator of the exhibition
The Italian artist Ilaria Turba presents the fruit of her three-year residency at the ZEF—scène nationale de Marseille: a “collection of wishes” similar to a collection of objects that she gathered during her immersion in the 14th and 15th “arrondissements” of Marseille, as well as in the imagination of its inhabitants.
Ilaria Turba is a visual artist and photographer. Her work is nourished by exchanges and collaborations that often take the form of workshops and participative creative processes around themes that are dear to her: the relationship between identity and collective imagination, as well as the relationship between the present and memory, with objects, photographs, stories and places as primary supports. In 2018, she became an associate artist at the ZEF—scène nationale de Marseille, which came about with the merger between the Merlan scène nationale and the Gare Franche artists’ centre. “The desire to look further” is one of the outcomes of this three-year residency.
For this project, Ilaria Turba worked with locals in neighbourhoods near the Merlan and the Gare Franche to collect their “wishes”. She led workshops to make ritual breads (”breads of desire”), thus giving a material form to the wishes that were collected. She also designed a “Route of Wishes”—a friendly and festive 12-kilometre course linking the Merlan theatre and the Gare Franche, which will be open to all on 12 June 2021. At the same time, in order to add to the rich collection of breads, she explored the Mucem’s collections to source a selection of lucky charms, which inspired her to create contemporary amulets that will be raffled off during the “Lottery of Wishes”—an event to precede the closing of the exhibition.
The exhibition takes place simultaneously at the Conservation and Resource Centre (CCR) and at the Fort Saint-Jean. The first part, at the CCR, is more specifically dedicated to the confrontation of the breads of desire with a selection of objects from the collection chosen by a group of workshop participants because of their formal or symbolic resonance. In the second part, at the Fort Saint-Jean, the public is invited to follow a visit route retracing the different stages of the project through installations, photographs, drawings, sound recordings, videos and posters, as well as meeting the artist to continue to create, with her, traces of these desires to look far away.
It is the object as a narrative, as a trace of the intimate, which is at the heart of Ilaria Turba’s approach, namely how to make immaterial wishes perceivable and visible.
As an extension of the exhibition presented at the Mucem, the Italian Cultural Institute of Marseille plans to present a reconstruction of Ilaria Turba’s work, and in particular the posters produced in the artist’s hut, recreated at the Fort Saint Jean.
This exhibition will be held at the Italian Cultural Institute from 9 November to 8 December 2021.
In partnership with the ZEF scène nationale de Marseille.
The exhibition is part of the Grand Arles Express under the umbrella of the Rencontres internationales de la photographie Arles 2021.
The Project is supported by the Italian Council (9th Edition 2020), a programme for the promotion of Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creation of the Italian Ministry for Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism.

Interview with Ilaria Turba, artist, and Émilie Girard, curator of the exhibition
