Los Angeles-based artist Alex Israel has created site-specific works for the MAMO Arts Centre. Israel’s exhibition takes as its starting point Tim Burton’s 1989 film, Batman, which became upon its release the fifth most successful Hollywood film of all time.

Inspired by Marseille’s gritty history and Le Corbusier’s brutalist concrete architecture, Israel has re-imagined the rooftop pavilion and deck of the Cité Radieuse as Gotham, and as a temporary home for two new sculptures that appropriate Batman’s most iconic props: the iconic 1989 Batmobile and the Bat Signal, both on loan from Warner Brothers Studio. 

The Batmobile is installed as a sculpture within the rooftop pavilion, becoming the centerpiece of an installation of smoke, light and sound on view throughout the day; and the Bat Signal lives on the exterior deck, from which it casts its enormous beam high above Marseille, making the exhibition publicly visible across the city.