The Abattoirs fit naturally into this collective event in Nice because the notion of experimentation is one of their core values. This former industrial site has become a platform for contemporary socio-cultural practices based on experiences of being together in different ways and on experimenting with alternative relationships with culture and the urban environment.

Two particular artists have been invited to take over Les Abattoirs and to propose new situations or relationships with a place and to experiment with this throughout the summer of 2011. Intervening in terms of the layout of the site, architect Didier Faustino’s work «Kunstellation» spreads a network of interconnected devices that provide numerous ways of physically experiencing spaces and of being together and interacting with individuals. The artist Stefan Shankland aims to formulate the tools for reflection and action on the Abattoirs, by adapting and implementing his HQAC (High Quality Artistic and Cultural) process which strives to make this place the fulcrum of art, ideas and sustainable development. At once a framework for thought and also event programming, Les Abattoirs’ offers a «territory for experimentation». This venue is concerned with the invisible urban environment: roofs and raised gardens, and the Paillon, a forgotten gateway from the city centre to the periphery, extending the green belt and changing the topography of the city.

Through these two interventions, the entire site of Les Abattoirs is open to the public, as well as the overpass in front of the building which will be temporarily open to pedestrians during the event. These spaces are transformed by creators and local associate partners into a place of new cultural and urban practices, a “strange attractor” to paraphrase the name of one of the devices used by Didier Faustino, as well as the idea of regulating factors of chaos in the scientific domain.

The company Antipodes makes a work in progress through four performances under, over and around the Vérany overpass near Les Abattoirs and that the Chantier Sang Neuf turns to an urban public stage the time of the event's Contemporary Art and the Côte d'Azur.

www.nice.fr/Actualites/Chantier-Sang-Neuf