Death of albums or death of our attention span?
25, Super Trouper, Hit Me Hard and Soft, Igor or American Idiot, I could go on and on about my personal iconic albums. What about you? When was the last time you found yourself listening to a full-length album of an artist, with no break or song skipped? This may sound like an odd question Read more
From La Dolce Vita to La Grande Bellezza: Fifty Years of Italian Splendor and Melancholy
Italian cinema has always possessed a rare gift: the ability to turn life itself into a spectacle, and the spectacle into a meditation on life. From Il Sorpasso to 8½, from La Dolce Vita to Cinema Paradiso, Malèna, and La Grande Bellezza, we travel through more than half a century of Italian history and yet, Read more
A concert for students that highlights the saxophone
On Wednesday 5 November, the Pays de la Loire National Orchestra (ONPL) gave its special student concert to mark the start of the season. The programme featured over an hour of classical music without an interval, exclusively for students who filled the concert hall at La Cité des Congrès, attracted by the chance to listen Read more
A paradoxe of writing : it disappears when we can understand it, and only appears once we face an unknown one
Writing, when it works, disappears into reading. — paraphrasing Roland Barthes thesis in The Degree zero of writing, 1953. When faced with a stele covered in hieroglyphs, an ancient Chinese manuscript, or a Linear A tablet, something happens. Writing lies before us, familiar in its materiality : lines, strokes, columns, engravings, yet utterly foreign. We read Read more
Music streaming: innovation, cultural monitoring, and human-driven solutions
Digital Communities and the Birth of Streaming At the end of the 1990s and the dawn of the 2000s, music became one of the first fields to experiment with digital culture. Whether on forums, sharing sites, or peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, self-organized and self-regulated communities emerged: uploaders, curators, collectors, and enthusiasts. Even today, these communities persist, Read more
How Brands Use TikTok and Instagram to Build Cultural Identity
I was scrolling through TikTok one night — just mindlessly switching from one short video to another — when a Gucci post suddenly stopped me. It wasn’t a typical luxury-brand ad: no polished studio light, no model’s perfect smile, just a quick, messy, almost spontaneous clip. But somehow, it felt intentional. That raw, unfiltered energy Read more
Discover “Sous la pluie” — When Art Meets Rain in Nantes
“Sous la pluie. Peindre, vivre et rêver” — When Art Meets Rain in Nantes I really like rain. When I was a child, I always enjoyed sitting in the classroom watching the raindrops fall on the leaves outside the window, often getting distracted during lessons. I loved sharing an umbrella with classmates to walk to Read more
La Haine: what happens when an emblematic movie of the French social divide becomes a musical?
Everyone knows La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz’s emblematic movie released in 1995, which has become a work of art at the heart of French cultural heritage and the cult reference of French urban culture. The film follows a day in the life of three young men from the suburbs the day after riots, inspired by a real Read more
Univerciné German Festival – Celebrating German Cinema in Nantes
As autumn fully embraces Nantes, you might be searching for a cultural event that matches the cozy atmosphere of the season. Look no further! During the first week of November, the Univerciné German Film Festival invites you to the Katorza cinema to explore the rich and often overlooked German-speaking film scene. Throughout the week, enjoy Read more
The Nantes-Angers Opera in the face of budget cuts: what future for the performing arts?
An unprecedented fiscal shock The 2025 school year was marked by the announcement of the 2025 budget, which shook more than one! A rather austere budget in the face of an ever-growing deficit, it seems that culture has not escaped it. Once it has been put on a diet, it would be interesting to observe Read more