600,000 begonias, 100 assemblers: the Brussels Flower Carpet is back

The flower carpet on the Grand-Place is the most reproduced image of Brussels around the world. In fact, many tourists come to Brussels expecting to see it all year round - but the truth is that they will only get to see it for four days every two years.

This, the largest floral carpet in the world has its origins in the early 1950s when smaller carpets were produced in such cities as Oudenaarde and Lille that were the brainchild of landscape architect Etienne Stautemas.

In 1971 the concept was brought to Brussels and eventually this purely Belgian art was reproduced by Stautemas and his team not only in the Belgian towns of Bruges and Ghent but also in Cologne, Luxembourg, Paris, Vienna, London, The Hague, Valencia, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Shanghai, New Delhi and even Columbus, Ohio.

However the Brussels carpet is not a one-shot project but, since 1986, a biennial celebration. 75m long, 24m wide, composed of 600,000 flowers and assembled by 100 people in four hours.

The flowers in question are begonias, originally from the West Indies, which since 1860 have been cultivated and developed in East Flanders - especially the area around Ghent. In fact Belgium is the world's largest producer of begonias, 60 million tubers per year, 80% of which are exported primarily to the Netherlands, France and the US.

Every two years, the non-profit association Tapis de Fleurs brings together a committee of professionals (illustrators, graphic designers, landscape architects) who come up with scale projects, with each edition illustrating a different theme.

Japan

This year, to commemorate 150 years of diplomatic recognition between Japan and Belgium, the carpet has two designers, Mark Schautteet who has carried on the tradition since Stautemas' death in 1998 and young Japanese designer Fujie Suzuki.

"Watching the 2014 Flower Carpet documentary on flower growers, I was drawn to the warmth in the eyes of the people growing the flowers," says Suzuki. "The love many flower growers have for the flowers they cultivate was evident, and I wanted my design to give them a sense of pride and accomplishment in their work and their flowers.

"In Japanese we have the expression 'kacho fugetsu', which consists of the kanji characters for flower, bird, wind, and moon. It translates into English as 'the beauties of nature' and is used to describe the beauty of animals and natural landscapes captured in artistic works. The phrase also indicates a love and respect for nature.

"I intend to communicate the beauty of Japanese nature through the natural beauty of flowers lovingly cultivated in Belgium and displayed in its central square, considered one of the most beautiful in the world."

Once the theme has taken shape in the form of a model and symbols, the number of flowers is calculated and the combinations of colours are established. Several days before the inauguration, a full-size drawing is executed on sheets of micro-perforated plastic that are laid down atop the cobblestones of the Grand-Place. The 100 volunteers will then fill in the design with the hundreds of thousands of flowers very tightly laid partially on top of one another - approximately 300 per square metre.

The opening ceremony music and light show is based on Puccini's Madama Butterfly and will be concluded by the traditional fireworks display which is shot from the carpet itself for an amazing effect.

On 12 August 12 from 8.00-13.00, visitors can watch the carpet being assembled. The opening ceremony, music and light show and fireworks is at 22.00.

13-15 August: Viewing from the balcony of City Hall 10.00-22.00 (€5). Ground level viewing open throughout the four-day period, free.

www.flowercarpet.be