All Aboard: Discover the Laureates of Villa Albertine’s 2025 Maritime Residency
(c) Karim Oyarzabal
In partnership with the French shipping company MARFRET and the Musée national de la Marine.
As France prepares to host the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference, Villa Albertine is dedicated to highlighting creative perspectives on maritime issues.
In the fall of 2024, Villa Albertine launched a call for applications for maritime residencies aboard a container ship crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Through this initiative, Villa Albertine promotes sensitive approaches to the realities of global maritime trade, contributing to renewing the imagination surrounding the sea. By shifting the focus and placing artists alongside those who observe the world from the oceans, Villa Albertine encourages diverse perspectives that enrich our understanding of the world.
After reviewing over a hundred applications, the selection jury, composed of the three partner institutions – Marfret, the Musée national de la Marine, and Villa Albertine – selected three winners. In 2025, Sam Butin, Louise Cognard, and Karim Oyarzabal will embark on a unique journey across the Oceans, joining the crew of the MARIUS, a 195-meter container ship that connects mainland France with French territories in the Pacific, passing through the United States.
Sam Butin: A Transatlantic Story Through Video Games
A video game designer, Sam Butin will use his journey aboard the Marius to gather research material for an immersive documentary game project dedicated to a significant event in the history of transatlantic relations: the final voyage of the SS Normandie, a French luxury ship that transported refugees fleeing Europe to the United States on the eve of World War II. During his voyage from Le Havre to New York, Butin will collect the necessary research to recreate the atmosphere of the maritime journey. At the same time, he will reflect on the parallels between the past and present, viewed through the lenses of immigration, identity, and resilience. His project, entitled Normandie: A Documentary Video Game, reinvents the ways history is transmitted through storytelling, games, and immersion.
Louise Cognard: A Literary and Sound Logbook
A journalist and writer experienced in maritime exploration, Louise Cognard will explore how maritime traditions survive in the hyper-modern environments of container ships. She will create an audio documentary based on the crew’s stories collected during her voyage while continuing to write her novel November Charlie, which focuses on an idealistic Western youth facing the complex realities of the modern world. On board the MARIUS, her journey will take her from Le Havre to Nouméa, with a stopover in the United States.
Karim Oyarzabal: A Maritime Utopia in Images and Sounds
From Papeete to Philadelphia, illustrator, filmmaker, and engineer Karim Oyarzabal will study the contrasts of the maritime world to inspire an animated short film. Focused on the story of a maritime utopia, a poetic fiction featuring an imaginary ship in harmony with nature, his project will be based on careful observation of life aboard the MARIUS. During his voyage, he will work on a detailed sketchbook and sound recordings that will feed into the visual base and soundtrack of the animated work. Combining mechanics, ecology, and poetry, the project examines the tensions between technological innovation and the preservation of nature.
In partnership with
MARFRET
MARFRET: AT THE HEART OF GLOBAL TRADE
Founded in 1951, the maritime company MARFRET specializes in international freight transport. Operating nine regular shipping lines along the north/south axis, it serves five major geographical areas: the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, Caribbean, Amazon, and South Pacific, with a significant presence in the French overseas territories.
MARFRET also has subsidiaries in river transport, handling, and warehousing, providing an integrated and multimodal door-to-door service.
The company has established a long tradition of hosting artists in residence, both aboard its ships and in its onshore offices. MARFRET, which owns seven vessels, likes to define itself as an “Ar(t)mateur.”
Musée national de la Marine
The Musée national de la Marine houses one of the most beautiful and oldest collections in the world, tracing over 250 years of maritime and naval adventures. A public administrative institution under the supervision of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, it is located in five cities across the national territory: in Paris at the Palais de Chaillot-Trocadéro, and in the ports of Brest (at the Château), Port-Louis (in the Citadel), Rochefort, and Toulon. It also has a conservation and resource center. Its networked presence allows it to maintain strong connections with local maritime cultures and to promote an active policy of exhibitions and events, making this institution a vibrant place for raising awareness about today’s and tomorrow’s maritime challenges.
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