"The Abyss" exhibition – Nantes Museum

From October 16, 2021 to June 19, 2022, the Nantes History Museum presents an exhibition on the theme of the slave trade and the colonial past of its city through an exhibition called "L'Abîme, Nantes in colonial slavery, 1707-1830“. Between the 17th century and the 19th century, more than 500,000 slaves boarded Nantes ships.

The directors of the museum wanted to show this dark part of the history of France thanks to pieces from unique collections, allowing via this material reality to see in detail what this trade, this deportation and this dehumanization was.

The museum has chosen a partly immersive exhibition, in which digital technology should allow visitors to better understand the reality experienced by the captives locked up in these huge slave ships.
In one of the rooms, we had the mission of immersing the visitor on board La Marie-Séraphique, a ship which took an active part in the Atlantic slave trade in the 18th century, with “La Traversée“, an immersive video projection on the ground. and on the walls, supported by a very captivating sound design, which recreates the crossing of the Atlantic and the deplorable living conditions on board these ships.

The images projected on the floor and on the two parallel walls come from two watercolors from the collections of the Nantes History Museum, on a soundtrack, produced by Martin Gracineau.

Material :

– 3x EPSON EB-800F video projectors (5000 lumens)
– 2x EPSON EB-L1050U video projectors (5500 lumens) with ELPLU03S optics
– 5x Modulo Pi Nano video servers
– 1x Multi-channel sound card
– 1x DMX Dimmer with ArtNet / DMX converter
– Chief Ceiling Fixing Systems
– 1 4G Modem + IP camera + computer with Modulo Player Remote for remote control