Love Letter from Brussels
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Two Flower Carpets (No.36)
27/05/2016
Brussels Flower Carpet
The 2016 Brussels Flower Carpet by Nomura designer Fujie Suzuki
@photo ASBL TAPIS DE FLEURS DE BRUXELLES - Gaston Batistini - Labo River - Marc second
The design of this year’s Flower Carpet has been a “well-known secret” in this column from earlier on, but finally it has been officially disclosed. On May 10, at the press conference held at the Brussels city hall, Mr. Mayeur, Mayor of Brussels, started by presenting the design himself. After that, I also gave a short speech; while touching upon Prime Minister Abe’s visit to Belgium the other day, I talked about the relation between Japan and Belgium up until now, which can be summarized by the keywords of “friendship, trust and solidarity”. And it will stay that way in the future as well.TThe Brussels Flower Carpet is held biannually at the Brussels Grand Place (said to be the most beautiful in the world). The entire square is used like a canvas to create a huge painting made with flowers. This year will mark the 20th edition and as part of the celebrations of 150 years of Friendship between Japan and Belgium, Japan is the country of honor, so the flower carpet design will feature Japan. The design for it was created by Ms. Fujie Suzuki from Japan’s leading display and design company Nomura. Initially a design proposal was presented by the “Flower Carpet Committee”, but this proposal did not represent Japan enough. With only three weeks to go until the Meeting of the City of Brussels to consider the design, we were told to present an alternative proposal, so we contacted in a hurry some companies with the talent to pull this off and Nomura Co. Ltd. took on the challenge.
As you can see, the design takes “Ka-Cho-Fu-Getsu”, the traditional themes of the beauties of nature (flowers, birds, the wind and the moon), as a motif. In the center there is the moon, somewhat freely represented to resemble the red sun of the Japanese flag. The bird is represented by a crane and the flowers by the traditional pine, bamboo and plum (although here it is actually cherry blossom). The wind, finally, is represented by waves of water. As a whole, it makes up a wonderful piece.
This year’s flower carpet event will be held from 12 to 15 August. Every time a great number of tourists come to the Grand Place for the Flower Carpet, but this year I hope and expect especially many Japanese tourists to come to Brussels.Brussels Flower Carpet in Tokyo?
As part of my official duties, I am involved in the commemorative events for the 150 Years of Friendship between Japan and Belgium organized in Belgium, but of course the festivities are not limited to this country. In Japan as well, various events are being organized, mainly by the staff of the Belgian Embassy in Tokyo under the guidance of Ambassador Sleeuwagen.
One of those events is the Brussels Days in Tokyo, which took place from May 16 – 20, approximately at the same time as the presentation of the Brussels Flower Carpet design in Belgium. This is an annual event organized by the Brussels-Capital Region to promote the region abroad and this year marked the 11th edition. Other recent editions were held in Washington in 2013, in Beijing in 2014 and in Milan in 2015. The decision to hold this year’s edition in Tokyo was motivated by the strong wish of the Brussels-Capital Region to celebrate the 150 Years of Friendship between Japan and Belgium. Also, Brussels is very much willing to show abroad that it has recovered from the terrorist attacks and that it has regained its vigor.
For this event, Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region Mr. Vervoort and Secretary of State of the Brussels-Capital Region Ms. Jodogne, responsible for Foreign Trade, made a visit to Japan. In Tokyo, not only commemorative ceremonies were held, there was even a “Brussels Flower Carpet in Tokyo”. As you can understand from looking at the pictures, the scale of the carpet was not as large as the one in Brussels, but what a lovely design it is. I think that this event was ideal to get Japanese people interested in the original flower carpet here in Belgium. By the way, during that perior, the Sky Tree in Tokyo was lit up with the tricolor of the Belgian flag.
For me, these “two flower carpets” were a good opportunity to recognize anew the obvious fact that bilateral exchange cannot continue without being mutual and without love. Everyone, I would also like you to get involved in this mutual exchange. Put complicated issues aside and come to the Flower Carpet. I am confident that many pleasant experiences await you here!
