European Galleries Flock to the Med for Marseille Mainstay Art-o-rama

Partnership Art-o-rama 2025 to Pay Homage to Marseille Roots Sherry Paik

While the French art world may be known for shuttering its doors in August, the scene reawakened on Provence’s south coast just as the summer drew to a close.

Following a rare downpour the day prior, exhibitors and collectors alike arrived under the sun and heat on Friday at La Friche la Belle de Mai, where Art-o-rama (29–31 August 2025)—the fair that has put the port city on the industry map since 2007—opened with over 60 exhibitors from 14 countries.

Marseille has become a place of fascination for the art world and an ideal launchpad, especially for emergent galleries attempting to break out of their local collector base. Yet for a city which so often looks to situate itself within its Mediterranean context—its star museum Mucem, for example, prides itself on being the first institution to focus on Mediterranean culture—its flagship art fair succeeds in placing Marseille within a global network.

‘We always have a very international selection,’ Art-o-rama founding director Jérôme Pantalacci told Ocula, noting this year’s breakdown of 30 percent French and 70 percent global galleries. ‘But maybe it’s because Marseille is more interesting for foreigners than for French people,’ he added in jest.

It may be surprising that a place brimming with influence from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Europe features so many galleries from further north and eastward in Europe—several of whom relish attending Art-o-rama as a respite from fairs in their native colder climes.

First-time participants this year included aaaa nordhavn from Copenhagen, for their first art fair beyond Scandinavia, and Polansky from Prague; while Romanian gallery SABOT has made Art-o-rama a must-attend event in their annual calendar.

Iavor Lubomirov, owner of Bulgarian gallery Cable Depot, described Art-o-rama as an annual highlight since debuting at the fair in 2022, with the city’s art scene feeling like a ‘second home’.

Lubomirov has found himself working regularly with artists and collectors in Marseille, and described French collectors as more akin to patrons keen to fund his artists’ exhibitions. ‘I find that French collectors are open to supporting artists rather than just for the commodity value,’ he told Ocula.

Meanwhile, Swiss gallerist Fabian Windhager remarked that ‘lots of people have an eye on Marseille’. His gallery Windhager von Kaenel in Zug showed at Art-o-rama for the second time, having found that many of his artists including Swiss-Kosovan painter Azize Ferizi, whose work the gallery presented this edition, love to come to Marseille.

Windhager also noted the increasing comparisons between Marseille and Berlin (albeit back when it was more affordable)—a point also observed by Owen Clements, director of Berlin gallery Dittrich & Schlechtriem, who made their Art-o-rama debut this year.

Clements highlighted an ‘interesting overlap’ between the two cities, with a shared aesthetic and energy described as ‘kind of low key but also very sexy’. Their solo presentation of lightboxes by Monty Richthofen was coupled with the artist’s documentation of his Marseille trip, including photographs by Lukas Städler. The gallery will also launch Richthofen’s new series of editions with mail-art postcards in the spirit of Provençale summer travel, including handwritten notes posted from Marseille.

Returning for their sophomore participation, Budapest gallery Longtermhandstand strategically uses the fair as a jumping-off point. Co-founder Peter Bencze told Ocula: ‘It’s not really about selling artwork; it’s more about showing ambitious projects which can bring new opportunities to the artists.’

Bencze was quick to add, however, that the gallery had already sold two works from their Marcel Duchamp-inspired group show before the fair: a work on paper by Gábor Pintér and a painting by Attila Bagi. He described a positive outcome last year as well, having arranged exhibitions for their artists in ‘good institutions’ via their past Art-o-rama participation. 

Like many other gallerists who spoke to Ocula, Bencze’s buoyant mood was credited in large part to the positive experience—down to the application process and fair logistics—as well as the more affordable fees for participation.

Pantalacci said that international gallerists, whilst hesitant to attend fairs due to rising costs and a slowing market, had praised Art-o-rama’s affordable fees. Booths for galleries under seven years old are priced at €3,500, and €4,000 for more established entities. In comparison, a solo booth for a first-time participant at Liste Art Fair Basel, where many Art-o-rama galleries also exhibit, was priced at the equivalent of €8,000 in 2025, with fees going up from there.

Fair committee member and Vienna gallerist Sophie Tappeiner told Ocula that exhibitors are allotted 30 square metres per booth with the freedom to build any way they like, while the lower overheads ‘allow galleries to be playful and take risks’. This all lends itself to the ‘relaxed atmosphere’ for both gallerists and their clients, and the visitors ‘back from holiday in their bermudas’.

Beyond Europe, this year’s edition also saw several galleries joining from London and the United States. Shanghai’s Gallery Vacancy also made its Art-o-rama debut as the sole Asian gallery.

Above all, Pantalacci is proud to see the local art scene flourish on the international stage, highlighting the three galleries based in Marseille: Sissi Club, Spiaggia Libera, and Double V Gallery—the latter two also with outposts in Paris. ‘That means that now you can exist internationally [even] if you are based in Marseille, which is quite different [from] before.’ —[O]

Main image: Monty Richthofen, Marseille (2025) (detail). Courtesy the artist and Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin. Photo: Lukas Städler.