An emblematic figure of the river and festive history of Nantes, the Tugboat built by the Dubigeon shipyards 106 years ago, is today the property of the Pick Up Production association after having been a festive place for around fifty years until 2015. He was part of the cultural and artistic project Transfert financed by Nantes Métropole. The community announces today that it will take back ownership to guarantee its safeguarding, preservation and use that reconnects it to festive and cultural life.
The ex-tug R7, built by the Dubigeon shipyard 106 years ago, converted at the end of the 1960s into a nightclub, served as a night bar in Nantes until 2015. Known under the name “Remorqueur”, it then left the Saint-Félix basin to be taken over by the Pick Up Production association, and once again became a bar and concert venue during the “Transfer” operation. Transfer having ended in 2022, to make way for the Pirmil urban project, the site having then been dismantled, Nantes Métropole Aménagement has authorized the Tugboat to remain on site until the very next few months to allow its future to be considered. The transfer will be made to Nantes Métropole at the symbolic euro.
Nantes Métropole, keen to safeguard this Nantes and metropolitan heritage, is working on several perspectives for its future.
It is first a question of raising the heritage issue by recognizing it for the trace of the river and industrial history that it represents by requesting its registration in the inventory of Historic Monuments.
In the longer term, it is about finding a place above water in public space. with cultural and artistic use on a site which may be in connection with the Loire on the Island of Nantes.
In the immediate future, discussions are underway for its relocation and transitional use so that the Tugboat continues to live in the spirit of the occupation reinvented by Transfert.
“This heritage is inscribed in our imagination, whether it is that of the Loire, its naval industry or the festive and nightlife. It is like a call out and to be together. I wanted us to take responsibility for its preservation and to invent new lives for it so that it continues to be part of a common heritage and contributes once again to cultural life and the urban landscape.declares Johanna Rolland. mayor of Nantes and president of Nantes Métropole.
“I am delighted that today we can safeguard and tomorrow restore this exceptional heritage, in particular through the multiplicity of uses that it has known and which it is called to experience. I know the attachment the residents of the Metropolis have for the Tugboat and that is why we wanted the community, by becoming its owner, to be able to ensure that it remains accessible to everyone” , adds Anthony Descloziers, 2nd vice-president of Nantes Métropole in charge of metropolitan cultural facilities.
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