Nantes, France: A city rebuilt on contemporary art

© Le Voyage à Nantes (via HuffPost)

When Nantes, France shut down its shipyard– one of the biggest in the world, its young mayor decided to reinvent the city with contemporary art as its backbone.

This art is large-scale, massive even, and placed outside where everyone can see. Last year more than 200,000 tourists visited during the summer, and this year’s marketing campaign aims to draw 40,000 more.

There’s an 18th century stone house that looks like it’s being swept away by the Loire River, a 200-foot skeletal creature anchored to the beach that becomes more or less visible with the tide, plus a four-story mechanical elephant that took over the city’s abandoned docks.

For more on Nantes, check out the original story on Huffington Post Arts.