Founded in 1998, ZINC grew out of the popular education movement and new artistic territories. The association has always seen culture’s place as being at the heart of the city, hence its strong connection to the Friche Belle de Mai and its ambition to help create a “moving laboratory" there, a space to experiment, co-construct, confront, elaborate, and think.
A few of the major events that punctuated ZINC’s history: Nice to meet you (encounters between artists and visitors), LabZs (research and experimentation sessions for new forms of multimedia writing), Numérikids, Numériclub, Entrez libre (workshops encouraging creativity in the field of digital technologies)
On the occasion of Marseille Provence European Capital of Culture in 2013, ZINC asserted its ambition of becoming a cultural facility renowned for its ability to combine hyper-contemporary creative research with a programme accessible to the widest possible audience, while maintaining a connection with the economic field, particularly through its involvement from the outset in discussions on French Tech Aix/Marseille. What’s more, ZINC has always been proactive in the promotion of professional networks connected to digital art and culture.