Artist Residency

Since 2007, Marfret has been hosting artists in residence. Until now, these residencies have taken place on land in our offices and at sea on board our ships. As the Covid-19 pandemic has limited access to the ships, we have opened an artist’s studio a few steps away from our Head office, at 13 bis quai de la Joliette.
We are currently hosting the artist Pierre-Marie Vergnes for a two-year period. In his series Entre Présent et Présence, painted in oils, the port’s infrastructures, its cranes, its container ships, all its colours blend harmoniously with scenes of urban life where the diversity of lifestyles are united by one constant: the omnipresent exchange between the men and women to whom the artist gives life, between the city and its port.

Pierre-Marie Vergnes’ work is a good illustration of our approach to residencies: each one is above all a meeting between the artist, our sedentary teams and our crews. The artist offers our teams, who are maritime professionals, a new perspective on their activity, allowing them to see it differently, in all its sensory and emotional dimensions. The works of art resulting from these encounters are then shared with our clients and partners during exhibitions that we hold in the port chosen by Marfret and the artist from among all those on our ships’ itineraries.