Abstract
At a time when cities try to stand out from one another, the construction of ambiances is brought back to the foreground of urban, social and cultural dynamics in metropolises. With this contribution, we aim at taking the example of Nantes and the Machines of the Isle of Nantes to show the transformations of an industrial territory into a cultural open stage with cultural practices. Indeed, following the shutdown of the shipyards in the 1990s, the city pursued a major cultural policy to make the industrial wastelands attractive. In successive steps, the temporary artistic practices changed urban ones, based on the question of ambiances and their narrative. Favouring the implementation of projects taking place in public spaces, the city became a 360°-urban scene. As opposed to a generic city, Nantes turned urban scenography into a way to single itself out, by accompanying the creation of plots and narratives around its territory. Between artistic experiments and narrative, Nantes thus appears as a stage-city that invites to include user experiences.
Highlights
At a time when cities try to stand out from one another, the construction of ambiances is brought back to the foreground of urban, social and cultural dynamics in metropolises
Supported by the emergence of the event, cultural or creative city, the scenographic dimension of artistic projects serves the spectacularisation of cities, the dramatization of public spaces, turning precarious spaces into artistic experiment locations
The street theatre company Royal de Luxe based itself in Nantes and found a setting for its experimentations
Summary
With the birth of urbanism, the rise of metropolitan centres as economic actors without intermediaries, and the progressive structuring of street arts as a sector, functionalities coming from a dramatic culture are empowered, which re-activates an archaeological connection between theatre and the city. Supported by the emergence of the event, cultural or creative city, the scenographic dimension of artistic projects serves the spectacularisation of cities, the dramatization of public spaces, turning precarious spaces into artistic experiment locations It allows to reinvent the relations between inhabitants and their city by building an urban imagination. Theatre companies took the city as a background for artistic action, and the built environment became a piece of the décor that is used to unfold fiction The agglomeration supported these practices to create new cultural dynamics. The shows of the Giants are no longer thought as static theatre, but rather as walking spectacles with a plethora of skits over several days At this scale and time, as Jean-Luc Courcoult states, “The viewers cannot see everything, because several events are taking place at the same time in different places” [2]. Policies aim to maintain the dramaturgic action, in order to produce a city narrative based on the artists’ stories
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