2023-12-13 20:06:06
“A territory of the future”. This is how the city of Bourges defended its candidacy for the title of European Capital of Culture 2028. Refusing to establish itself as a metropolis, the Cher prefecture pleaded for “the rural world which has the right to culture”, according to its mayor Yann Galut (PS). His project “on a human scale” and “low carbon” convinced her the jury responsible for deciding between the four French cities in the running. Bourges was designated Wednesday December 13 at the expense of Rouen, Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand.
“If we give the label of European capital to Bourges, it will be a revolution which will transform our territory in an extraordinary way”, pleaded Yann Galut to the press during the Printemps de Bourges 2023. Evoking the example of Matera in Puglia in Italy, European City of Culture 2019, he began to dream of a tenfold increase in tourist numbers. “But above all, the inhabitants of Matera have created an entire cultural economy there,” added the mayor of Bourges.
A “huge honor”
Yann Galut has been heard. It’s a “tremendous honor”he rejoiced at the Ministry of Culture in Paris when the choice of his city was announced by Rossella Tarantino, president of the selection jury. “We were somewhere like Tom Thumb facing metropolises, we tried to offer another vision and another way of experiencing our European capital of culture.”
Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, for her part emphasized the popular and inclusive dimension of the cultural policy of the city of Berry. “Choosing Bourges means supporting the challenge of a medium-sized city (65,000 inhabitants, Editor’s note) which focuses on culture for its human, social and economic development and which aims to make a real place for all audiences” .
Bourges boasts many assets. The city hosted the very first Maison de la culture in France, a symbol of decentralization, inaugurated in 1964 by André Malraux. A new, much larger House of Culture was inaugurated on September 12, 2021. Above all, the city has hosted the most important current music festival in France every year since 1977.
The importance of the Bourges Spring
The famous Printemps de Bourges sets the tone every year in April for all the summer festivals, launches young talents and recognizes the most important artists on the French scene. Trenet and Higelin, Véronique Sanson, Jane Birkin and Alain Souchon, Dominique A and Zaho de Sagazan, all sang there. Boris Vedel, director of Printemps de Bourges, played a decisive role in the city’s candidacy by associating his festival with the most prestigious in France, the Avignon Festival, for 2023.
The medieval city center of Bourges modeled by Jacques Cœur, great financier of the Kingdom of France, the Saint-Etienne cathedral listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the National School of Art and the Antre Peaux cultural space , as well as the very first cultural wasteland in France, are participating in an artistic program made up of fifty projects.
Two flagship projects
Highlighting a “sobriety application”the city has two flagship projects. «Bourges 2028 will be the first European capital of culture dedicated to music. promised Pascal Keizer, general commissioner of the application file. There are also plans to create a European City of Artists and Authors, a resource center serving those in the cultural industry.
Bourges symbolizes the ordinary medium-sized town which is experiencing a tense economic situation, with a higher than average unemployment rate, a loss of inhabitants, a town center where many curtains are permanently lowered, difficult cities and no TGV service. It intends to put the Centre-Val de Loire Region at the heart of the project, making it the laboratory of a cultural policy which unites and brings together the inhabitants of an area made up of medium-sized towns, villages and rural habitats. “The major issue is territorial balance: 85% of French people and Europeans live in territories where no city exceeds 100,000 inhabitants,” specifies the mayor of Bourges. It is important to give them the opportunity to cultivate culture, because small and medium-sized communities collectively provide solutions for the future.”
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