Nantes and Lille rank among France’s ten biggest cities. Nantes Métropole, the urban community of Nantes and Lille Métropole, the urban community of Lille are among the largest amalgamated communities in the country. Lille’s geographical position – not far from the United Kingdom, near the Netherlands and next to Belgium – represents a real advantage for the development of regional and cross-border initiatives. Nantes is a harbour city, open to the world.
Lille and Nantes have a common industrial past that has marked their urban landscape and their identity. In the late 80s Nantes was severely affected by de-industrialisation; this led to the closing down of the shipyards, leaving the economy in decline and the city in a state of dormancy. With the textile industry crisis that began in the early 70s and lasted until the 90s and the mining industry crisis of the same period, the whole Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region was affected.
Thanks to restructuring and modernisation in the 90s, Lille and its surrounding area were able to pull out of the crisis. However, the state of the area remains fragile.
Lille and Nantes have both successfully bet on culture as development lever; this has energised the two cities, enhanced their image and raised their profile.
Industrial wasteland: giving a new place and purpose to abandoned areas
Many of the abandoned places left over from the industrial past have been converted into cultural spaces that now represent the wealth and the uniqueness of the cultural landscape in the two cities. Examples of this include the maison Folie Wazemmes and the maison Folie Moulins, the Prato in Lille, the Condition publique in Roubais, and the Lieu Unique and the Machines de l’Île in Nantes.
A cultural life punctuated by great events
Great events animate the cultural life of Lille and Nantes. They give national and international visibility, galvanise the whole city around individual events, occupy public space and bring culture closer to the inhabitants.
Lille 2004, European Capital of Culture, gave a real boost to the region and transformed its image. Of particular note, it gave birth to the maisons Folies and continues to exert its influence with Lille 3000 (Bombaysers de Lille, Futurotextiles, etc.).
As for Nantes, large events such as the Estuaire Nantes – Saint Nazaire, the Compagnie Royal de Luxe and the Folle Journée de Nantes all contribute to animating and enhancing the prestige of the city.
Cultural facilities that knit together the two metropolitan areas
Lille and Nantes enjoy a rich and varied network of cultural facilities that bind them together and provide diverse multidisciplinary programming.
A dynamic community
The two metropolitan areas boast an array of cultural players who carry out in-depth, quality work with inhabitants. This process gives rise to a number of initiatives and events, organized with the residents, that punctuate and animate the cultural life of the cities.
A bridge between the two cities
Call 911 in Lille and PickUp Production in Nantes are dedicated to the development and dissemination of hip hop culture. They are both part of a network of groups that organise hip hop festivals in France – a good example of a cultural bridge between the two cities.
Here we offer a different point of view on each of the cities and its surrounding region.
While we have chosen to provide an overview of the events, facilities and associations that make up the cultural life of Nantes, we have opted to meet individual players on the ground in Lille to hear what they have to say about their work.
The presentation on Nantes offers a broad overview of the region’s cultural initiatives. In contrast, the presentation on Lille provides examples of cultural projects that reveal the city as a meeting place of different worlds and cultures.
Naïs Bediat for Banlieues d’Europe
Pascal Couffin, Fragil, for Banlieues d’Europe.
Photo credits Nantes : Valérie Pinard
in collaboration with Jean Hurstel (Chair) and Sarah Levin (Director)
Myriam Bentoumi (Multimedia)
Elodie Fond (Retranscriptions)
LabforCulture is a partner initiative of the European Cultural Foundation. LabforCulture is grateful for the support provided by its funders.
