Medical Mediterraneanisms? End-of-life care and the mètre cube in Marseille

Abstract

This article examines the concept of ‘medical Mediterraneanisms’ through the case of a chapel-cum-multifaith space featuring artist Michelangelo Pistoletto's mètre cube de l'infini in Marseille's Paoli-Calmettes Institute for cancer care. The installation materializes tensions between secularism and pluralistic religious practice in end-of-life settings within France's Republican framework. Drawing on ethnographic observations, testimonies and visitor responses documented in the livre d'or (guestbook), the article argues that this space embodies both compromise and provocation, navigating Marseille's postcolonial demographics while challenging rigid secular-religious binaries. Pistoletto's mètre cube, used primarily by Muslims and Catholics, creates an alternative temporal and spatial framework that accommodates religious expression within ostensibly secular medical institutions.

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