MARSTLANTA Exhibition with DJ DJEL

Drawing on his Villa Albertine residency project in Atlanta, DJ DJEL’s visual and auditory exhibition, MARSTLANTA, brings together the soundscapes and hip-hop cultures of Marseille and Atlanta by merging musical archives with sound recordings of daily life in the two cities.

This exhibition will also feature the Atlanta Rap Map, a project developed as part of the Mapping Atlanta Project Lab at Georgia State University (GSU) by Brennan Collins and Adnan Rasool. Its purpose is to show the significance of music in the aural history of cities as well as to explore the symbiotic relationship between art and space. 

The MARSTLANTA exhibition resulted from DJ DJEL’s 2023 research and creative residency in Atlanta. As part of his residency, the Marseille-based beatmaker had the opportunity to meet many of Atlanta’s key figures, take photographs, shoot videos, and capture various types of sounds from field and musical recordings to interviews. Prior to his residency in Atlanta, he carried out the same research and production work in Marseille.

“Sometimes disparaged, often fantasized about, Marseille and Atlanta are undergoing accelerated sociological and urban transformations. Located over 7,000 km apart, these peripheral capitals have another thing in common: it’s thanks to rap that they’re on the map. This exhibition brings together the voices, sounds, and visual environments of these two singular planets in an imaginary third city called MARSTLANTA. Designed as a documentary mixtape by Djellali El Ouzeri, this visual and auditory creation will sketch out thirty years of musical history and urban mutations of the “Dirty South” through the testimonies of inhabitants, intellectuals, and actors of the hip-hop scene from different generations. Through his sensitive transcription, the artist invites us to experience the sensations, discoveries and realities that make up these two cities, brought together in a new spatiotemporal space. Visitors are immersed in an experience that takes them on a singular journey into the heart of this allegorical territory.”

Design, Sound Creation, Videos, Photos, and Cabinet of Curiosities: Djellali El Ouzeri
Map Graphics: Elodie Rama
Mapping: Jean-Christophe Aubert
Sound Mixing: Christophe Bouin
Fresco: OYE (T.K.O)
Atlanta Rap Map: Dr. Adnan Rasool and Dr. Brennan Collins of Georgia State University (GSU). The project is part of the Mapping Atlanta Laboratory and the EPIC program at Georgia State University (GSU).

This exhibition is supported by Villa Albertine. 

To learn more about the MARSTLANTA exhibition, click here

Djellali El Ouzeri, a.k.a. DJ DJEL, was born in Marseille in 1974. He is a DJ, beatmaker, graffiti artist, trainer, and organizer of hip-hop events. From 1998 to 2006, he released several records on Sony Music with his group the FONKY FAMILY, which was certified Gold and Platinum multiple times. In 2007, he founded the label DON’T SLEEP and has collaborated on stage and in the studio with nationally and internationally recognized artists, including Oxmo Puccino, IAM, Akhenaton, Soprano, Kendrick Lamar, Napoleon Da Legend, and Infamous Mobb. He founded the DJ school AKADEMIX and collaborates with AMI in the framework of HIP HOP SOCIETY. He is also co-founder of the OLDSCHOOL PARTY and is currently working on his fourth album.

To learn more about DJ DJEL’s residency project, click here.