The Abolition of Slavery Memorial Museum

On a revegetated esplanade, 2 000 commemorative plaques recall the slave trade shippings that started from Nantes as well as the major trading posts in Africa and in America.

Designed by the internationally renowned artist Krzystof Wodiczko and by the architect Julian Bonder, this memorial museum was conceived as an urban, a political and an art project. A contemplative trail, punctuated with quotes in every language, of all times and all places, becomes part of the Loire waterfront, at the very spot where the slave ships used to berth. Both underground so as to evoke the holds of these dying places and also aerial to open the debate, this piece is unique in France. What a strange feeling to wander under this waterfront at the same level of the Loire River in a luminous atmosphere and a particular soundscape.