The newly formed Marseille-based Solar Collective officially launches this summer with a series of exhibitions, discussions, and projections celebrating its creation and mission.
About the Solar Collective
Composed of six photographers and one curator, all based in Marseille and from diverse backgrounds, the Solar Collective is a vibrant, inclusive network fostering female talent and artistic collaboration. United by shared sensibilities and complementary practices, the collective aims to open new expressive spaces for contemporary photography through dialogue and experimentation.
In a photography landscape still predominantly male, the collective advocates for a committed, alternative narrative. Rooted in Marseille, the members explore what it means to be an emerging female artist in a contemporary Mediterranean port city. Through personal histories, hybrid identities, and collective struggles, they weave stories of emancipation, sorority, and intergenerational transmission, while interrogating the visible and invisible borders that cross bodies and territories. Marseille stands as both anchor and point of departure—an incubator of personal and collective stories.
Since its founding in January 2025, the collective has initiated several key projects, including a collaborative publication launched at Kominek Gallery in Berlin during the European Month of Photography. This limited edition publication intertwines the collective’s voices and languages—French, English, Portuguese, Persian, Hebrew, Italian, and Maltese—offering a multilingual reflection on their artistic practices.
The summer of 2025 marks the official launch of Solar in France, with its first group exhibition opening on June 27 at Mesure Créatif Club in Marseille, followed by a projection evening on July 9 at Triangle Gallery in Arles during the professional week of the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival.
Opening Events in Marseille
Six months after its creation, the Solar Collective presents its debut group exhibition, hosted by Mesure Créatif Club.
We will not destroy the world — We will create a new one
Curated by Carla Alberny, this pop-up exhibition showcases works by all six photographers:
Orianne Ciantar Olive, Giulia Frigieri, Julia Gat, Fanny Magot, Tina Masoumi, and Kamila K Stanley.
The event affirms the collective’s commitment to Marseille’s photographic scene while supporting decentralization and a rebalancing of the professional landscape.
The opening will highlight Marseille’s vibrant female creative scene with a DJ set by Feu Foulek and catering by Cécilia Bonacchi of La Boissonnerie Marseille.
Opening Schedule
📍 Mesure Créatif Club, 10 Impasse Montévidéo, 13006 Marseille
Thursday, June 26
- 1 PM – 2 PM: ✺ Roundtable – “Mastering Portfolio Reviews: Expectations, Tools & Perspectives” (Co-hosted by UPP & Solar)
- 2 PM – 5 PM: ✺ Portfolio Reviews by Photography Experts
Friday, June 27
- 4 PM – 6 PM: ✺ Press & Institutional Preview
- 6 PM – 11 PM: ✺ Public Opening
- 9 PM – 11 PM: ✺ DJ Set – Feu Foulek
Saturday, June 28
- 11 AM – 3 PM: ✺ Open Viewing
- 3 PM – 7 PM: ✺ Guided Tours & Photobook Club
The Exhibition
“We will not destroy the world — We will create a new one” is a collective statement aimed at forging new creative pathways. In a world plagued by geopolitical conflict—conflicts that, for many of the collective’s members, contributed to their arrival in Marseille—Solar chooses not to resist destruction but to build alongside it.
This first exhibition offers fragments, beginnings, chapters in progress. The collective invites the audience into their creative processes and their commitments. The works explore themes of movement, immersion, reflection, reinterpretation, and personal quest.
Formally, the exhibition unfolds as a carefully curated constellation of materials and mediums, laying bare the process of experimentation. This is not an abstract constellation—it is raw matter bound by a common nucleus.
Featured Works
✺ Nachraarhcan — Orianne Ciantar Olive
✺ Generazione Vulcano — Giulia Frigieri
✺ Mare Internum — Julia Gat
✺ À cœur et à cri — Fanny Magot
✺ Between Here and Home — Tina Masoumi
✺ Tarô de Janeiro — Kamila K Stanley
Curator: Carla Alberny
In Arles
In continuation of their Marseille launch, the Solar Collective hosts two events in Arles during the Rencontres d’Arles professional week:
Tuesday, July 8
✺ 11 AM – Roundtable Discussion
A conversation on parenting in photography and children’s creative expression.
Moderated by Marie Guillemin (curator), with contributions from Orianne Ciantar Olive and her daughter Mila, and (subject to confirmation) Céline Pévrier (sun/sun) and her daughter.
Wednesday, July 9
✺ 9 PM – Film Projection at Galerie Triangle
A photographic film by Nicolas Serve, merging images from the collective’s Marseille exhibition into a unified cinematic narrative.
Information
Mesure Créatif Club
10 Impasse Montévidéo, 13006 Marseille, France
June 26, 2025 to July 09, 2025
