Curated by Thierry Ollat

En route to Paris in 1792, a revolutionary volunteer army from Marseilles marched to the beat of the catchy, bloodthirsty tune “La Marseillaise,” which soon became the French national anthem. This year, the traffic runs the other way, as France’s second-largest city takes its turn as one of Europe’s official Capitals of Culture. Anchoring this effort for visual art is the Musée d’Art Contemporain, which, partnering with some twenty local venues—including three sites within Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse—is staging “Le Pont.” The aim is to highlight, via the work of some 150 artists hailing from countries as far-flung as China (Chen Zhen) and Chile (Alfredo Jaar), the role of Marseilles and its environs as a point of transfer. With the recent political upheavals on one side of the Mediterranean and a series of failed austerity measures on the other, an exhibition foregrounding the roles of “culture” and “capital” in a global world couldn’t be more timely.

— Paul Galvez