True Belief

A group exhibition about fiction, memory, and the persistence of stories.
during ARTORAMA Art Fair, Marseille by Erratum Projects – the curatorial platform of artist
Katya Quel – and Agent Troublant, a gallery run by artist Lou Jelenski and co-curator Lara Rocho, featuring artistic positions from Marseille and Berlin.

Off the coast of Marseille lies the Château d’If, once one of France’s most feared prisons. Its isolation and strong currents made escape nearly impossible. Over 3,500 Huguenots and political prisoners – including Gaston Crémieux, a leader of the Paris Commune executed there in 1871 – were held on the island. The fortress was a place of exile and class division: the wealthy could buy private cells with windows and fireplaces, while the poor were crammed into dark, airless dungeons.
In the 19th century, Alexandre Dumas set part of The Count of Monte Cristo on the island, imagining a prisoner who survives, escapes, and returns transformed. Over time, fiction blurred into history: tour guides began speaking of Dantès as if he had truly lived. A cell was named after
him. The myth became part of the monument.

“True Belief (Belle-If)” begins at this moment – when a repeated story becomes real enough to be remembered. This group exhibition brings together emerging artists exploring memory, belief, repetition, and how we construct what we call truth. Positioned at the threshold between history and invention, the works reflect on how stories become anchored – in architecture, language, and collective memory – and how, in a time shaped by simulation and fabrication, belief often travels faster than reality.

 

True Belief