SMALL THINGS: THE MICRO EXCHANGE

by Lisa Daniel

The Micro Exchange uses fragmented interventions to re-stitch Marseille’s crumbling port’s edge. It creates spaces which enable the healing and empowerment of the North African communities that have settled and found home in the South of France. Whilst reflecting on the decades of injustice and war between France and Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, the project aims to shine a light on the fractured communities' cultures and rituals and to support their surrounding ecosystems. Nature's seasons and forces will adapt and take over the port’s natural and built landscape, leaving behind the idea of ownership and land grabbing. The notion of transforming Marseille’s landscape with nature, creates seasonal communes which alter with the weather, eg. ‘flooding with the tide’, ‘dancing with the waves’ and ‘singing with the wind’. The Micro Exchange has elements that explore, women’s wellbeing, community activities such as fishing, market space, ecology gardens and repair and recycle processing and workshops. The proposal's transformation of the site reflects on the 1800s notion of a port. Marseille's port had reached economic highs and status during the French colonisation of North Africa. The Mirco Exchange reconstructs the idea of a port and brings it back to the cultures, stories and skills.