Ten years on from a first successful collaboration, Japan is returning to the Grand-Place this year, as part of the celebrations marking the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations and friendship between Japan and Belgium.
This collaboration is inspired by the passion for floral art shared by the two countries.
As a partner, Japan has the right to propose the design for the flower carpet. It is up to the teams at the non-profit organisation Tapis de Fleurs to transform the design, created by a Japanese designer, into a huge carpet of dahlias, covering a large part of the stunning setting that is Brussels’ Grand-Place.
Covering 1,680 m², it will once again be the world’s largest flower carpet, featuring over 700,000 flowers, all grown in Belgium and near the Dutch border.
Originally created by the artist Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa has been reworked by the artist Hiro Sugiyama for this edition of the floral carpet.
He fuses the original work with the experimental energy of contemporary art, reconstructing it through a sense of rhythm to allow the cultural memory of the past to resonate in a form that speaks to the present day.
Traditional motifs — such as waves, Mount Fuji and mystical beings — are reimagined through digital techniques, bold compositions and a sense of rhythm, reflecting the way in which the cultural memories of the past resonate in the present.
“Through this synthesis, I seek to connect the past and the future, the analogue and the digital, Japanese culture and contemporary art. In this pivotal year marking 160 years of friendship between Belgium and Japan, I am delighted to bring this work to life in the form of a Flower carpet.”
Hiro Sugiyama is an artist and lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts. Primarily active in analogue painting, he began producing digital works after co-founding the art collective Enlightenment. Since 2010, Sugiyama has devoted himself wholeheartedly to analogue painting and continues to exhibit his work around the world.