Down the hole (Citadelle Cast)

Photo: ©Matéo Granger

Heritage . Testimony . Social History

Details

Free

From 10 years old

Duration: 15 min


Place

The Citadelle of Marseille

Starting point: The Upper-Part of Fort Saint Nicolas


Organiser

La Citadelle de Marseille

“Red alert.

The alarm sounded throughout the underground facility. We found ourselves locked in from the inside, as is standard procedure in such cases: doors locked and waiting for instructions. It’s important to note that since we got the new computers down there, it gets hot quickly despite the air conditioning. But there must have been a revolt, perhaps a new war. We didn’t know yet, but it must have been serious, given the General’s call and the red alert.”

Valérie Manteau
Citadelle Cast is a series of four geolocated sound fictions that invite you to delve into the layers of history at Fort Saint-Nicolas. In each episode, a character who once “lived” in the fort speaks in the language of their era and reveals a facet of this place with a thousand and one lives.

In this episode, we are escorted to the exit by Francine, a switchboard operator at the military telephone exchange located in the basement of the Fort in the 1970s. Francine finishes her 8-hour shift, happy to see the light of day again, but due to her professional training, she is still ‘on duty’ – on the lookout for the slightest incident at the Fort.

You can also discover ‘Through the main gate’ and ‘Wage war on war’ departing from the Haut-Fort, or enjoy a stroll through the gardens of the Citadel to discover ‘The Isle of Dogs’.

 
Disponible à l’écoute sur votre smartphone, depuis Septembre 2025, en téléchargeant l’application GOH et en vous laissant guider !

 

Credits

Text: Valérie Manteau
English translation: Richard Doust
Director: Gaëtan Gromer
 
Music & composition: Gaëtan Gromer, Antoine Spindler
 
Voice: Katie Flamman
 
Sound recording & mix: Antoine Spindler
 
Production: Les Ensembles 2.2
 
Partner: The Citadelle of Marseille
 

Know more

Valérie Manteau is a French author, editor and columnist. Her first two books, Calme et Tranquille (2016) and Le Sillon (2018), were published by Le Tripode. For these first novels, she drew inspiration from Turkey, a country dear to her heart, to weave her narrative. In 2018, she received the Renaudot Prize for her second novel, Le Sillon. She was part of the Charlie Hebdo team and was also an editor at Les Échappés publishing house from 2008 to 2013.

In 2013, she joined the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (Mucem) in Marseille as publishing and distribution manager. She now lives between Marseille and Istanbul.

Gaëtan Gromer – Composer, artist and sound producer born in 1978, he lives and works in Strasbourg. Artistic director of Ensembles 2.2 (a sound creation studio particularly active in the public sphere) and member of the executive committee and board of directors of HACNUM (national network for hybrid arts and digital cultures), he regularly engages his work in dialogue with other disciplines. He has worked with Maria La Ribot, Valérie Manteau, Hélène Gaudy, Etienne Fanteguzzi, Sebastian Dicenaire, Eve Risser, Lucie Taïeb, Clara Olivares, LNLO, Samuel and Léo Henry, luvan, Zahra Poonawala, Stéphane Perger, Espèce de collectif, among others.
He is the winner of the 2012 Imagina Atlantica European Digital Arts Award, and his albums [fri:z] and Noise Level are respectively among the ten best ambient albums of 2014 according to the French webzine SWQW and the ten best drone albums of 2016 according to the American webzine A Closer Listen.

Antoine Spindler – Trained at the Strasbourg Conservatory in the classes of Ana Haas (violin) and Claude Ducroq (viola), as well as at the University of Strasbourg in musicology, Antoine Spindler studied at Ircam, Fastlane, PML and elsewhere, specialising in electroacoustic and mixed music. He teaches in the Electroacoustic Creation and Performance class at the Conservatoire and at the Académie Supérieure de Musique-Hear in Strasbourg. He currently plays in the Jafta trio, with whom he released the album Traces, and in the Svië duo, with whom he created the album Port Data. His experiences have allowed him to collaborate with various ensembles and musicians (Linéa, Live Animated Orchestra, the Ethos quartet, Plurium, Clara Olivares, Eve Risser, etc.) as well as with various authors (Hélène Gaudy, Jean Fauque, Valérie Manteau, Sébastien Dicenaire, Lucie Taïeb, etc.).

With the support of the Citadelle of Marseille and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces