Staircase down to the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery on the Quai de la Fosse. Nantes, France. Stepping down depicts grim life below deck.
Krzysztof Wodiczko, in collaboration with architect Julian Bonder, designed the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in the former epicentre of the French slave trade, Nantes. The memorial was created as a site of remembrance of slavery as a crime against humanity, and to commemorate all past and present efforts of resistance to enslavement. According to Wodiczko and Bonder, the Memorial is also a project to reclaim the banks of the Loire. Sited in a location symbolic of Nantes’ port activities, it redirects traffic routes to place memory at the heart of the city. “The transformation of a space which is currently ‘empty’ into a ‘passageway’ provides a link with the ground under the city of Nantes, on both sides, land and sea… In some places visitors will find themselves hemmed in by 20th century substructures, a feeling reminiscent of the extreme confinement experienced aboard the slave ships,” explains the artist-architect duo.
Size: 8256px × 5504px
Location: Passerelle Victor-Schoelcher, Quai de la Fosse, 44000 Nantes, France
Photo credit: © Colin Walton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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