Saturday August 29, 2009

Fantasy island

By MARILYN ONG

On the Ile de Nantes (Isle of Nantes) in France, bizarre monstrous creatures right out of the pages of fantasy penned by the likes of Jules Verne are taking astonished visitors for a ride.

Disused docks and dilapidated shipyards are not to be dismissed out of hand. In London’s East End, Canary Wharf has now been resurrected as a financial centre. Across the channel in Nantes, located on the Loire River, the old harbour has now morphed into Machines of Isle of Nantes.

It is an artistic cum amusement park project that will eventually have 10 monumental machines.

So far, seven have been completed. Nantes’ fantasy beasts of the deep offer rides, and include such heavy metal creations as the Great Elephant, Crab, Pirate Fish, Lantern Fish, Bus of the Abyss, Reverse Propelling Squid and Manta Ray.

What a turnaround this has been for the island and for the city of Nantes.

Ride the Great Elephant

Up till the 70s, Nantes’ harbour was located at Ile de Nantes before it was moved to St Nazaire, leaving the island bereft and forlorn. But now the forsaken island has been revitalised into a major leisure and cultural project. Soon residential towers will bring life back to the newly designated city centre after dark.

The island’s first machines came to life in 2007, and the public has been able to ride the Great Elephant, visit the Machine Gallery and walk along a prototype branch of the Heron Tree.

The actual Heron Tree, which will open in 2011, promises to be another visual stunner because the steel tree, 45m in diameter and 28m in height, is topped by two gigantic mechanical herons which can flap their wings and fly visitors in a circular loop.

A modern hanging garden, the Heron Tree will also boast real plants on its 20m long branches, and visitors can go from one branch to another.

The Isle of Nantes project is a circus, theatre, laboratory, exhibition and roadside show all rolled into one. What used to be rundown industrial warehouses and derelict shipyards, once the pride of Nantes, is now party central for the rejuvenation of the entire island.

The Pirate Fish.

The machines have become permanent components of Nantes’ urban landscape, and the project has been hailed as a stunning example of reinvention using imageries from the past.

Instead of seeking inspiration from Star Wars or creatures from movies like Alien vs Predator, Nantes has opted for the past, digging into the archives of early science fiction writers like Jules Verne, even going as far back as to tap the genius of Leonardo da Vinci.

The Machines of Nantes are spectacular mobile objects that leave little to the imagination, as their innards and inner workings are exposed for all to see. Unlike in Disneyland where the animated creatures are made to resemble as closely as possible the real creatures, Nantes shows theirs for what they are — products of man’s imagination, exotically embellished.

You see all the nuts and bolts, bells and whistles.

Most look half-finished, as if certain parts of their torsos are still being worked on or patches of skins are waiting to be installed. But these are finished articles.

“The Machines are supposed to look like their names, and the half-completed look is done on purpose,” says Noele Biton, communications manager of Nantes Cultural Patrimony.

When the Great Elephant trundles out for its 45-minute walk at a leisurely pace, there is no mistaking the beast for anything but the machine that it is.

It is larger than life at 12m high and 8m wide, and comes with outdoor balconies on both sides and a lounge on top. Technology is still unable to make it walk on just four legs, so for stability and security, a man sits inside its tractor-like cabin at road level and drives the elephant.

The elephant weighs 45 tonnes and cost €2.5mil (RM12.5mil).

The Manta Ray

So far, the other completed creatures include the Giant Crab, Crab Larva, Pirate Fish, Reverse Propelling Squid and Manta Ray. Coming online are Heron Tree, Bus of the Abyss, Storm Boat and Marine Worlds Carousel. The Carousel will open in 2011.

As the Machines are still being made, visitors can enter the Gallery workshop and witness the creatures being constructed. A lucky few are allowed to take part in certain tests, like the wind tunnel flight simulator to verify the viability of certain flying machines.

The huge concrete-iron-and-steel warehouses were built early in the 20th century to house the metalworkshops of the Loire river shipyards. Until they closed in 1987, they were the mainstay of Nantes’ shipbuilding industry.

“The Machines of Nantes is an unprecedented project never done on such a large scale. Since 2007, the Elephant has gone for 94,000 walks!” says Noele Biton.

“These machines are born from the incredible imaginations of Francois Delaroziere and Pierre Orefice, who are active promoters in the renewal of street theatre and urban performances in Europe.

“They have been involved in machinery and complicated, moving objects for the last 15 years. We are worlds apart from traditional amusement parks. Some may think the machines are old-fashioned, even 19th century, but they are actually very high-tech and use the latest technology,” he points out.

The beauty of Nantes’ mechanical creatures is that they look familiar yet appeal to the wilder side of our imagination.

Time Magazine was so impressed with Nante’s renewal programme that it hailed Nantes as “Europe’s Most Livable City”.