Comprising one million objects and documents, the Mucem's collections are preserved and made accessible at the Centre for Conservation and Resources (CCR)*, designed by the architectural firm Corinne Vezzoni and associates. The CCR opened its doors in 2013 in Marseille's Belle de Mai district, during European Heritage Days.
In September 2023, the CCR celebrates its 10th anniversary: 10 years during which the collections have been reviewed, enriched, viewed and documented in an environment conducive to exchange and suitable for conservation. The CCR was conceived to serve the collections and the Mucem’s entire scientific team, as well as the general public. It welcomes researchers, artists, heritage professionals, students, the curious and schoolchildren in its consultation, reading, exhibition and storage rooms. In fact, interaction with all these audiences plays a major part in enriching our knowledge of the collections.
Interview with Marie-Charlotte Calafat, Mucem Scientific and Collections Director
Mucem
Why has Mucem chosen to honor its Conservation and Resource Center for this anniversary exhibition?
Marie-Charlotte Calafat (M.C.C.)
The Mucem celebrates its 10th anniversary in June 2023, and the CCR is one of the three places that make it up. Less well known, it is nonetheless open to the public, allowing visitors to come into contact with the museum’s collections and scientific team. It’s a remarkable building with an offer that’s rare in the museum world. This exhibition, inaugurated during the European Heritage Days, is an opportunity to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the museum’s opening to the public, which took place during the 2013 Heritage Days! It allows us to show the collections from a very personal and human angle. It’s about telling the stories of these objects, of the people to whom they once belonged, and of the people who handled them, inventoried them, restored them and so on. The personality of a museum depends on its collections, its visitors and its staff, all of whom we want to bring together in this exhibition. This exhibition is a way of making visible the care and work carried out on the collections, which the general public is not always aware of. We want to share the experiences we’ve had over the last few years, and imagine all the others to come!
M.
So this exhibition can be seen as a tribute to the heritage professions?
M.C.C.
Heritage professions are many and varied. There’s a whole range of complementary functions: archivist, librarian, documentalist, photographer, installer, manager, curator, etc. The museum team is driven by a passion for the object or document, as well as by the desire to pass on the pleasure and knowledge of the museum to the public at large. These professions are also forward-looking, as they involve acquiring, studying and preserving for future generations. This exhibition is therefore a tool for discovering these heritage professions. Mucem is a museum of society, whose collection enables us to question the society in which we live, our daily lives, through objects and the people who make and use them. It is a source of experiences and stories that arouse a wide range of emotions, which we are here to share. The human approach proposed by this exhibition allows us to look at the collection in a different way.
M.
Along with the CCR, the Mucem was one of the first museums to allow public access to its reserves. What plans does the museum have to open up even further in the future?
C.C.
In December, the Mucem will open a permanent exhibition of its collections in the J4 building. This project is generating a lot of activity to prepare the thousand or so objects involved! At the CCR, we’ll be continuing to offer specific workshops, diversifying our offer and improving the experience of visiting the reserves, which remains new and unique every time. We will continue to study the collections in relation to all publics: the curious, enlightened amateurs, researchers, heritage professionals… However, the CCR does not have a capacity as large as that of the exhibition rooms in the J4 building. Limits are imposed by the imperative need to preserve the collection as well as possible, and therefore to strike the right balance between preserving it and opening it up to the public.
Celebrating the CCR’s 10 years, the exhibition “The secret life of the collections at la Belle de Mai” presents 110 objects, photographs, archives and books from the Mucem. It tells the story of the life of the CCR and the objects in its collections through the eyes of those who have created, studied, preserved and promoted it: donors, curators, restorers, etc. The whole of the Mucem’s scientific team came together for this project, to share their love of the objects and tell us their human backstories.
These tell the stories of people’s lives and social events, providing an opportunity to reflect on our contemporary practices, and what yesteryear’s society would have made of our own. They bear witness to humankind’s relationship with its environment, and speak of rootedness and construction, making them therefore a resource for humanity worthy of preservation and made known. This is what the museum’s staff is dedicated to.
Commissariat :
The Mucem scientific and collections teams coordinated by Marie-Charlotte Calafat, head of the collections department, assisted by Julie Durin, Pernette Léger and Charles Riondet.
Production Manager :
Léonore Branche
Set and graphic design :
Marion Gournay, Noémie Saïdi
Comprising one million objects and documents, the Mucem's collections are preserved and made accessible at the Centre for Conservation and Resources (CCR)*, designed by the architectural firm Corinne Vezzoni and associates. The CCR opened its doors in 2013 in Marseille's Belle de Mai district, during European Heritage Days.
In September 2023, the CCR celebrates its 10th anniversary: 10 years during which the collections have been reviewed, enriched, viewed and documented in an environment conducive to exchange and suitable for conservation. The CCR was conceived to serve the collections and the Mucem’s entire scientific team, as well as the general public. It welcomes researchers, artists, heritage professionals, students, the curious and schoolchildren in its consultation, reading, exhibition and storage rooms. In fact, interaction with all these audiences plays a major part in enriching our knowledge of the collections.
Interview with Marie-Charlotte Calafat, Mucem Scientific and Collections Director
Mucem
Why has Mucem chosen to honor its Conservation and Resource Center for this anniversary exhibition?
Marie-Charlotte Calafat (M.C.C.)
The Mucem celebrates its 10th anniversary in June 2023, and the CCR is one of the three places that make it up. Less well known, it is nonetheless open to the public, allowing visitors to come into contact with the museum’s collections and scientific team. It’s a remarkable building with an offer that’s rare in the museum world. This exhibition, inaugurated during the European Heritage Days, is an opportunity to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the museum’s opening to the public, which took place during the 2013 Heritage Days! It allows us to show the collections from a very personal and human angle. It’s about telling the stories of these objects, of the people to whom they once belonged, and of the people who handled them, inventoried them, restored them and so on. The personality of a museum depends on its collections, its visitors and its staff, all of whom we want to bring together in this exhibition. This exhibition is a way of making visible the care and work carried out on the collections, which the general public is not always aware of. We want to share the experiences we’ve had over the last few years, and imagine all the others to come!
M.
So this exhibition can be seen as a tribute to the heritage professions?
M.C.C.
Heritage professions are many and varied. There’s a whole range of complementary functions: archivist, librarian, documentalist, photographer, installer, manager, curator, etc. The museum team is driven by a passion for the object or document, as well as by the desire to pass on the pleasure and knowledge of the museum to the public at large. These professions are also forward-looking, as they involve acquiring, studying and preserving for future generations. This exhibition is therefore a tool for discovering these heritage professions. Mucem is a museum of society, whose collection enables us to question the society in which we live, our daily lives, through objects and the people who make and use them. It is a source of experiences and stories that arouse a wide range of emotions, which we are here to share. The human approach proposed by this exhibition allows us to look at the collection in a different way.
M.
Along with the CCR, the Mucem was one of the first museums to allow public access to its reserves. What plans does the museum have to open up even further in the future?
C.C.
In December, the Mucem will open a permanent exhibition of its collections in the J4 building. This project is generating a lot of activity to prepare the thousand or so objects involved! At the CCR, we’ll be continuing to offer specific workshops, diversifying our offer and improving the experience of visiting the reserves, which remains new and unique every time. We will continue to study the collections in relation to all publics: the curious, enlightened amateurs, researchers, heritage professionals… However, the CCR does not have a capacity as large as that of the exhibition rooms in the J4 building. Limits are imposed by the imperative need to preserve the collection as well as possible, and therefore to strike the right balance between preserving it and opening it up to the public.
Celebrating the CCR’s 10 years, the exhibition “The secret life of the collections at la Belle de Mai” presents 110 objects, photographs, archives and books from the Mucem. It tells the story of the life of the CCR and the objects in its collections through the eyes of those who have created, studied, preserved and promoted it: donors, curators, restorers, etc. The whole of the Mucem’s scientific team came together for this project, to share their love of the objects and tell us their human backstories.
These tell the stories of people’s lives and social events, providing an opportunity to reflect on our contemporary practices, and what yesteryear’s society would have made of our own. They bear witness to humankind’s relationship with its environment, and speak of rootedness and construction, making them therefore a resource for humanity worthy of preservation and made known. This is what the museum’s staff is dedicated to.
Commissariat :
The Mucem scientific and collections teams coordinated by Marie-Charlotte Calafat, head of the collections department, assisted by Julie Durin, Pernette Léger and Charles Riondet.
Production Manager :
Léonore Branche
Set and graphic design :
Marion Gournay, Noémie Saïdi