The Villa Massilia, now a ruin, bears subtle traces of its past, a sublime-looking disused building, framing the Mediterranean landscape through its windowless bays. I therefore decided to restore the villa, not by renovating it but by magnifying its air of disuse. My interest in the concepts of roots, attachment and belonging to a human community, developed in my dissertation and mixed with the history of the villa which, between 1945 and 1948, was home to children of Jews who had been shot or deported, led me to collect memories and create a place dedicated to photography. To restore the villa without destroying its current architectural quality, I suggested minimum development, showing and protecting the qualities of the site, its traces and history, and giving it a future.
