When I look back at these photographs, taken on a hot day at the end of April this year, I am astonished that I took so few. This is one of the few buildings, a modern and historic join-up, that I have found so spellbinding that I forgot to take photographs. The surroundings are so immersive and enjoyable that the moment was more important than the capture. Just looking through these few images transports me back there, and I will need to visit again.
Marseille itself is a splendour, an incredible mashup of cultures, histories and vibrancy. And MuCEM is the museum dedicated to the cultures, history and conditions of the Mediterranean bang in the middle of the City. The museum is contained within the old military stronghold of Fort St Jean and includes the iconic modern building positioned right by the shores of the sea it celebrates. The Garden of Migration, part of the museum which is wrapped around the old Fort, was somewhere I had always wanted to visit, having read Louisa Jones’ article about the creation of it, back in 2014.
The space was orginally thought as a ‘garden promenade’ through which the visitor could experience the landscape diversity of the Mediterranean, but from the start, the design and planting prioritised the botanical representation of the region, rather than any more conventional ideas of what a garden should be. Nearly 10 years on from the first concepts, the space may prove challenging to those who see the word ‘garden’ and expect order and tidy cultivation. But, it is doing exactly what the designers originally conceived of, demonstrating the robust beauty of hard-pressed and tough plants and unadorned trees in conditions echoing their natural setting.
Crossing from the main MuCEM building on the thin footbridge, you come first to a courtyard of of planters, and stone supported slopes with a billowing planting of native shrubs, mostly spring flowering.
Passing the groves of olive trees, you move upwards to the slopes above the ancient Fort. Specially constructed terracing has created pathways, and a slow, continuing ascent filled with more native shrubs and groundcover plants.
The harshness of the terrain, and the relentless beating sun stimulate many of these plants to hug the ground, curl their leaves and, it is noticeable how, even in April, this year’s dryness is forcing autumnal tones into the landscape.
In the rare, cool spaces, in the shade of trees or walls, Centranthus and other tough perennials could take hold. Note the beautifully positioned stone slab marrying up with the cool stone terracing- the garden had many small moments like these within the stern landscape.
Like many public spaces, forced to economise over the last few years, the Garden of Migration probably does need a bit of revamp, and some more user-friendly signage to connect visitors to the landscape, but the sense of tough terrain and the use of land to enable life, both animal and human, is a vivid thread through the whole space. It mustn’t be gardened away, but it can be helped and refreshed in places to enhance the visitor experience.
And I leave you with the photograph, not mine, of the truly wonderful pergola, echoing the concrete latticework on the modern MuCEM building, which provides patterned shade on the terrace of the Fort.
If you haven’t been, go.
Photo credit: http://www.metalleriemunoz.fr
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