LE ZEF – La Gare Franche

One national theatre, two venues! The combination of an artists’ residence (La Gare Franche) and an accredited theatre (Le Merlan) makes for a vibrant, flexible, and inventive national theatre. Two unusual structures, each with their own specific characteristics, their own way of thinking about artistic support, and their own commitment to cultural initiatives. A venue for performances combined with a place of residence. A pooling of resources and knowledge. The diversity of spaces and the contribution of unique tools (kitchen and gardens). A varied programme: ecology, cooperation, diversity of uses, gastronomy, transversality and cultural mixing as a response to the challenge of cultural democratisation.

LE ZEF – Gare Franche is an artists’ centre in the heart of Marseille’s 15th arrondissement. Suspended between the Plan d’Aou housing estate and the village centre of Saint-Antoine, it acts as a link between the two neighbourhoods. A country house, a creative factory, collective gardens, a plot of land; a piece of countryside in the middle of the city that welcomes artists, schoolchildren, gardeners, and local residents, and constitutes a public space that everyone can explore and experience in their daily lives.