Japanese artist Aki Inomata once asked "Why not hand over a shelter to hermit crabs?" and answered her own question with this: a series of plastic shells modeled after the New York City skyline, a Parisian apartment, as well as typical architectures of other countries.
Aki's said:
In this piece I gave hermit crabs shelters that I had made for them, and if they liked my shelters, I got them to use them as their shell. I overheard that the land of the former French Embassy in Japan had been French until October 2009; that it was to become Japanese for the following fifty years, and then be returned to France. This concept made me think of hermit crabs, which change their shells. The same piece of land is peacefully transferred from one country to the other. These kinds of things take place without our being aware of it. On the other hand, similar events are not unrelated to us as individuals. For example acquiring nationality, moving, and migration. The hermit crabs wearing the shelters I built for them, which imitate the architecture of various countries, appeared to be crossing various national borders.
Aki's website | Designboom has more pics