“Where is the green line? We lost the green line! We have to find it!”
These days in Nantes, if you look local enough—holding three baguettes or walking with purpose qualifies you for the job—tourists will ask you where is “the square with the palm tree sculptures,” “the square with the giant wheel,” “the submarine,” “the elephant,” “the Jules Verne carrousel,” “the unsigned paintings” or “the giant buckets.”
Yes, gone are the days when people would ask for XYZ street. Nantes has landmarks now.
Well, to be exact, these are not permanent landmarks but various modern art projects scattered throughout the city. The 50+-stop itinerary takes visitors on a “journey” from art installations to more formal exhibitions, from quirky playgrounds to obscure art projects. A green line is painted on the pavement and tourists follow it religiously—to the point that I hear “where is the green line?” twenty times a day, as if losing sight of it would be the end of the world.
Even though the “journey to Nantes” summer event started in 2012 and I saw most of the art pieces every year, I still don’t know what to think of it. On one hand, I like the fact something is happening—it’s fun to see these giant installations on the city’s main streets and squares and they do draw a crowd, which in turn makes Nantes livelier and more international. On the other hand, I’m not in love with contemporary art and I find the rhetoric around these art pieces deliberately pretentious. The “Journey to Nantes” free booklet highlighting the artwork and the creators is a mouthful. “That’s the draft, right?” I joked. “It’s still gotta go through a few rounds of edits, doesn’t it?”
My dad is an artist—and his work can be described as figurative, so he’ll never be featured in the “Journey to Nantes”—and my mom did graduate studies research on contemporary art, so we spend most nights debating about art and its future. Of course, being French, we are also getting nowhere, which is the entire point of the debate.
Meanwhile, Mark has fun playing on Claude Ponti’s art project/playground and riding the vintage, steampunk carrousel imagined by Royal de Luxe.
I shared your previous post to my friend who was an high school exchange student in Nantes over a decade ago. She’s a little younger than you. She said there was no cafe what so ever in your hometown when she was there. I can relate with your XYZ street to landmarks things
I’m really surprised she says there was no café… there are cafés absolutely everywhere! Maybe she means café-only places, like Starbucks? French usually have coffee in bars (i.e. places that sell alcohol as well, but you can get coffee, sandwiches, etc. as well)
Pingback: How Good is the 2018 “Journey to Nantes” Art Festival?