Île de Nantes is one of the city’s must-visit neighbourhoods. Here, visitors discover major art works, like those of Nathalie Talec or Lilian Bourgeat – and yet, they are often unaware of the buzzing artistic and cultural activity that abounds within its higher educational institutions. Since 2022, new curiosities have popped up on Île de Nantes, which pull visitors off the beaten path to discover the talents of the “Campus de l’art”. From installations to exhibitions, the students here are designing the city of tomorrow – and shaking up the neighbourhood, giving it a new color while they’re at it.
Questions revolving around environmental and societal transitions are increasingly driving public debate. The foundations for the city of tomorrow are being built on the campuses of today. Young people are now tacking these issues and revealing their commitment to imagining a territory that will be resilient in every dimension.
Once again this year, Le Voyage à Nantes opens the doors to these unique buildings, which are usually closed to the public, to show the great creative activity inside, the quality of education, and the ins and outs of student life. Le Voyage makes its way into the spaces of production and creation to reveal construction workshops, research spaces, or gathering places where one can only imagine the emulation among students throughout the year.
École nationale supérieure d’architecture (ensa) – Nantes Université
The École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes is a public institution of higher education and research. This exceptional urban campus was designed by Lacaton & Vassal, winners of the 2021 Pritzker Prize. It accommodates more than a thousand students preparing France’s national diploma in Architecture. The school also offers training for scenographers, naval architects, architect-engineers, and urban planners.
Now affiliated with Nantes Université, the institution has decided to be even more resolutely invested in the city and surrounding region, offering its students a range of cultural activities that focus on architecture, the city, and the environment. With its emphasis on experimentation, it uses the greater Nantes region to propose other ways of thinking about the environment, and of inhabiting urban, suburban and rural territories.
Within this highly strategic environment, ensa Nantes offers a curriculum that integrates architects into society and opens them up to a wide range of professional practices that will prepare them to meet contemporary challenges. The building itself also opens out onto the region, thanks to its roof and terrace, both of which offer a unique panorama of the city.
Immersions
This school trains young architects, and produces countless, inventive solutions to reimagining houses, cities, and regions. This exhibition presents life-size works by students, showcasing the culmination of their educational and architectural praxis.
Alongside the ramp, a series of immersive, inflatable works has taken over the central square, revealing the beauty of cities, the shadows of utopias, and the urgent, ever-renewed, mad hope to constantly rebuild and rethink the world.
Students: Heeshant Beharee, Mahdiyyah Boodhoo, Aurélien Bouzanne Des Mazery, Zoëline Gallay, Benjamin Gallis, Jeanne Landron, Tanguy Richard, Julianna Voisse.
Research professors: Michel Bertreux, Francis Miguet.
With the participation of: Valentin Salvagnac.
École des beaux-arts Nantes Saint-Nazaire – Nantes Université
8,500 m2 (91,500 ft2) of Alstom’s former industrial warehouses were renovated by architect Franklin Azzi in 2017 to become Nantes’s fine arts school – 4,300 m² (46,300 ft2) of which contain workshops dedicated to research and experimentation in all areas of the visual arts: construction studios, as well as image and print centres for nearly 500 students (30% of whom are international) and the 1,000 students enrolled in courses that are open to the public.
Les Beaux-Arts de Nantes Saint-Nazaire is a higher education institution spread over two sites, and has been affiliated with Nantes Université since 2022. It trains students in contemporary creation and offers two degrees: the Diplôme national d’art and the Diplôme national supérieur d’expression plastique.
Les Beaux-Arts also offers a range of artistic activities. Managed by the Pôle artistique et culturel, its aptly named Open School consists of a gallery, a café, an art collection, and offers a series of lectures and hands-on courses that are open to one and all. Here, anyone can visit an exhibition, work in the library, borrow an artwork, attend a lecture, have coffee on the patio, or participate in an artistic workshop.
From east to west
This year, visitors can discover the school from east to west. By the front entrance, the Open School gallery will host the third edition of the Prix Host Call exhibition. The selected artists – Morgane Baffier, Pauline Beck, Olivier Bemer, Damien Caccia, Bérénice Nouvel, and Floryan Varennes – will present a selection of their performance art and visual works. In addition, the main hallway running through the school will be open to the public, leading visitors to its creation and production workshops, and offering a glimpse of student work amidst the materials and pieces created throughout the year.
Visitors will also be able to discover Playtime (is over), the fifth-year students’ exhibition.
Halles 6 Ouest – Nantes Université
Halle 6 Ouest is a true catalyst for innovation and experimentation within Nantes Université, offering students the tools to meet the social challenges of tomorrow by bringing together world-renowned researchers, teachers, students, start-ups, artists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Through its 3 labs, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, it proposes a range of additional services, from creating building prototypes to studying user experience, in addition to courses and events planning.
Nantes Université is a public institution of higher education and research based on a university model unlike any other in France, combining: a university, a university hospital (CHU de Nantes), a technological research institute (IRT Jules Verne), a national research organisation (Inserm) and several grandes écoles (Centrale Nantes, École des Beaux-Arts Nantes Saint-Nazaire, and the École d’Architecture de Nantes). These different entities have joined forces to develop excellence in research within Nantes, while offering new training opportunities in all areas of learning.
Archiving reality
Artist Axelle Auguin is a keen observer of urban space and how it is perpetually mutating all around us. With the notion that every object develops a fingerprint throughout its lifetime, acquiring scars of wear and tear, she collects fragments of bodies and places, focussing particularly on the theme of memory.
Through architectural photography, the exhibition Archiver le réel (“Archiving the Real”), which can be seen on the north façade of Halle 6 Ouest, was completed during the school’s second semester by a group made up of students and staff. It highlights the architectural heritage of Nantes Université, offering a singular perspective on its forms, uses and history, while addressing the notions of archives and photographic storytelling.
Participants: Paul Déléris, Jérôme Massiaux, Vona Méléder, Alesia Mitlina, Lidia Pavlova,
Mattéo Riffault, Cléane Robichon, and Philippe Rosa.
Guest artist: Axelle Auguin.
With the support of the Pays de la Loire Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs and the CVEC as part of a programme contributing to student and campus life.
Mediacampus – Audencia SciencesCom
MEDIACAMPUS is a brand-new type of campus, and the flagship of the dynamic Campus de l’art on Île de Nantes, dedicated to communication, information and the media. Under one roof, it brings together the communications school, Audencia SciencesCom, the local television station, Télénantes, and audiovisual companies alongside professional associations (a communications agency, press agency, animation studio, audiovisual production, and the Club de la Presse). It thus allows for unparalleled cooperation between all these different players. This ecosystem offers training courses, conferences, and various events all year round, along with spaces dedicated to professional production (TV studio, recording booths, etc.). Audencia SciencesCom – Audencia’s school of communication – has been part of the MEDIACAMPUS since 2017. It combines academic excellence and professional functionality to enable its students to work in exciting and demanding professions. From start-ups to international companies, public institutions to associations, and agencies to media studios, the organisations that recruit communications and media professionals are multiple, as are the available jobs.
Fake News: Art, Fiction, Mensonge
an exhibition sponsored by Fondation EDF
In the lobby, Audencia SciencesCom presents Fake News: Art, Fiction, Mensonge by Fondation EDF, which addresses the spread of false information throughout the world.
Authors: Samuel Baluret, Juliette Le Taillandier de Gabory, Isabelle Martin, Karen Prévost-Sorbe and Virginie Sassoon.
Students: Julia Buffa, Marie Carette, Jeanne Riou, Laetitia Vigouroux, Laura Vrignaud.
École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques (ESMA) – CinéCréatis
Opened in 2013, the Écoles Créatives (“Creative Schools”) bring together ESMA (l’École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques, or the “higher school of artistic professions”), and CinéCréatis. Located in the Parc des Chantiers district, the schools offer two creative training programmes, with all the educational tools to let students find their creative voice.
ESMA trains students in 3D animation and special effects over four years. One year of prep classes in “Entertainment” precedes the official programme, which helps pupils to acquire skills in drawing, volumetry, and storytelling. Films made in the final year are also regularly selected for leading festivals throughout the world.
As for CinéCréatis, it offers a full three-year training programme for students wishing to work in the audiovisual and film industry. Directing, producing, shooting, and post-production – all the essential stages in filmmaking – are taught in order to train the industry’s leading professionals of tomorrow.
The Ecoles Créatives belong to the Icônes group: a major network for higher education in the creative sector.
Screening of short films by students from ESMA and CinéCréatis
Next to the lobby, a space has been set up where a selection of films made by ESMA and CinéCréatis students will be screened. Whether they are documentaries or fiction, these films are a joy for young and old, exploring the passage of time with a certain hindsight, humour, and nostalgia.
Films: Achoo (2017), Coeur de chou (“Heart of Cabbage” – 2017), Derrière l’usine (“Behind the Factory” – 2017), Pour une poignée de caramels (“For a Fistful of Fudge” – 2019), La source des montagnes (“The Mountain Spring” – 2020), Le Roi tulipe (“King Tulip” – 2020), Mésozoïque Alternatif (“Alternative Mesozoic” – 2021), Terrain miné (“Minefield” – 2021).
Pôle des Arts Graphiques : lycée de la Joliverie et Grafipolis
The Pôle des Arts Graphiques was the first post- secondary institution to arrive on the campus in 2010, and it still towers over a vast stone square that plays with the scales of the nearby Zero Newton building and Trempo bunker. It is home to two schools: La Joliverie – for the Arts & Design sector – and Grafipolis – which trains apprentices for the graphic industries, as well as paper and cardboard and signage. The programmes (whether they are pre- or post- secondary, or dedicated to continuing education) aid in the development of the cultural, creative, graphic art, printing, and digital industries.
Teaching is primarily project-based and focusses on developing partnerships that offer young people and mature students a knowledge of working conditions in today’s and tomorrow’s professional world. This training is enriched by a network of companies formed by both establishments, where student life is filled with myriad internships, work-study programs, tours and conferences. Although visitors may not see them, large workshop spaces – from drawing to digital printing, or industrial silk-screening – hide within the institution’s walls, where the Pôle’s students and apprentices enrich their knowledge and savoir-faire.
Le Champ des signes by Studio Katra
Visitors to the Pôle des Arts Graphiques can enjoy Le Champ des signes, a mural created with Studio Katra. Le Studio Katra is a creative studio made up of a multidisciplinary team that creates worlds and images revealing cities and territories. Discover their floor painting on the ground outside the Pôle des Arts Graphiques. By following the green line, you will see their added touch all along the inter-school itinerary.
École de design Nantes-Atlantique
The École de design Nantes-Atlantique was designed by architectural agencies Marc Mimram and GPAA, as well as the Jouin Manku design agency. All of its teaching and research spaces are organised around a central agora – a living space that opens out onto an avenue leading to the Parc des Chantiers district. It is all part of a one-of-a-kind structure that offers a space for living, learning, and openness to the outside world.
The mission of the École de design Nantes Atlantique is unique: it considers design to be a discipline at the crossroads of creativity, strategy and management, and offers professional training courses. The school awards a 5-year design diploma and a 3-year Diplôme National des Métiers d’Arts et de Design, either for on-site study, or through a work-study programme.
The school has created 5 design labs: the Care Design Lab, City Design Lab, Digital Design Lab, Food Design Lab and Media Design Lab, all of which are research platforms dedicated to exploring themes related to contemporary social, technological and economic changes through design.
Future Heritage – La vache Nantaise (“The Cow from Nantes”)
Through an original layout by architectural firm Barreau et Charbonnet, students in the Food Design Lab, under the direction of Julia Kunkel, invite us to meet… the cow from Nantes. This project, in partnership with Nantes Métropole, offers reflections in design and innovation related to sustainable and local food, showcasing a territory in the middle of a food revolution.
Students: Roxane Beaufils, Julianne Castaing, Flore Debbasch, Clemence De La Fourniere, Ines De Saint-Aubin, Alice Dumas, Emma Dumasdelage, Elea Favre, Elise Gachet, Valentine Ganichaud, Léo Gouraud, Clemence Guéno, Maÿliss Hyon, Lucas Le Petit, Loïs Lebastard, Lucie Levrard, Claire Lucas, Marie Marchal, Enzo Nicosia, Justine Poussin, Diane Rinck, Anelise Robbe, Clara Terrier, Jingrand Wei, Adrien Weisskopf.
Teachers: Pierre Foulonneau, Julia Kunkel, and Camille Orlandini.
Design l’Expo
Also, the latest edition of the Design l’Expo exhibition features a selection of diploma projects by young designers who have graduated from the school, revealing unexpected applications of design in response to technological, environmental, and societal issues.
Students: Arnaud Courilleau, Robin Exbrayat, William Gelberg, Allan Guegan, Coraline Guerriau, Lydia Lammari, Julie Legal, Irène Lopez Abarca, Riwan Majidate, Héloïse Mariani, Louis Richard-Marschal, Romain Monjales, Louise Plantive, Adeline Porteret, Valentine Redoulès, Charlène Schaub, Charles Simon.
All the educational teams, led by the directors and pedagogical
heads of Design Labs: Clémence Montagne, Bastien Perdriault, Gwenaëlle Faye, Simon Boussard, Florent Orsoni, Anaïs Jacquard, Julia Kunkel, Juliette Brétéché, Aude Messager-Chaigneau, Frédérique Krupa, Arnaud Le Roi, Karl Pineau, Baptiste Fluzin and Matthias Rischewski, Julie Le Ster and Jason Chapron.
Nantes is transforming
Nantes is changing to become an even more ecological, inclusive, and dynamic city. To do this, new public works will reinforce our already existing ecofriendly modes of transport: new tram lines, green zones for pedestrians and cyclists, and more. From 2024, these major urban projects will disrupt traffic around Les Machines de l’Île and Parc des Chantiers, with the Pont Anne-de-Bretagne bridge closed off to cars (the bridge will remain accessible to pedestrians and cyclists). Solutions will be offered throughout construction to make it easier for everyone to get around, like: increased frequency of several public transport lines, more Naolib bike-share bicycles, and more parking spots in park-and-ride lots.
For further information