It is this time of the year again at Grand Place! The “Flower Power” time in the beating heart of Brussels! The Brussels Flower Carpet time, which is open from the 13th until the 16th of August 2026 with a fascinating name: “Neo-Hokusai”.
Front page photo : © photo Ville de Bruxelles
This “Neo-Hokusai” is inspired by the world-known iconic art work of Hokusai “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” reimagined on a monumental scale by a Japanese artist Hiro Sugiyama and his collective Enlightenment, which blends the refined aesthetics of traditional ukiyo-e prints with the energy of contemporary art! The result is both a tribute to the power of nature and a celebration of the longstanding ties between Belgium and Japan: to be more precise-160 years of diplomatic relations!
© photo Ville de Bruxelles
It was fascinating to hear Koen Vondenbusch’s story, who is an artistic director of an NGO “Flower Carpet of Brussels” and is managing the artistic side of the carpets for 32 years! He showed me the prototype of the carpet from the balcony of the City Hall of Brussels and explained that he controls the process and he is always sure that everything will work out!
© photo Ville de Bruxelles
The flower carpet exists since 1971 and is hold bi-annually with a new theme each and every time! Nowadays the dahlia is the queen flower, because it’s strong and can survive the 4 days temperatures at grand place without problems! Before the begonia was used and had to be replaced almost daily! It became an old-timer!
Koen Vondenbusch, the artistic director, and Yelena van Kharitonova, journalist at Culturius © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
100 volunteers were today at the Grand Place carefully installing the flowers and putting the flower carpet together! They started at 7:00 am and finished at 13:00, because at 14:00 the public is allowed to enter the City Hall and enjoy the view from the balcony and the City Tower! The trucks with the dahlias arrived at 05:30 and left before the carpet was installed! 500 000 dahlias are being used for the carpet!
The Alderwoman for Culture of the City of Brussels Mrs. Nawal Ben Hamou, on the left © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
The first people who were allowed to enter and see the work were the press and reporters! We were allowed to enter the field and literally see how the process went under supervision of the technical staff and representatives from The Embassy of Japan, which helped as well with the artist’s explanations and interpretations! One of the most inspiring and inspirational moments were my contacts with volunteers!
All came with a body of positive energy to help to install the flowers properly! Properly indeed! If you do it the right way the flowers help each other during the 4 days temperatures and hit!
Even the designer-artist himself was putting the flowers together with the volunteers! He wanted to be a part of the process, which is a part of the Japanese culture, to be inside out!
The Japanese artist Hiro Sugiyama © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
Parallel to the inauguration of the Flower Carpet it was something else interesting happening! It was another official opening of “Shops in Bloom” initiative, which turned the city center in a one big flowers scene with different installations from different designers! We went through a tour and were fascinated to be a part of this parkour, initiated by Alderman for Economic Affairs Mr. Didier Wouters, who started the initiative this year and put together the idea of stimulating commerce in downtown by using this unique moment: the 4-days of the Flower Carpet presence in the city center! He had chosen a known theme for this year: “Flower Power” and rightly so: it’s in the name!
© photo Ville de Bruxelles
Later there are more openings, which have been planned: one of them in the former Stock Exchange Building and the other one at the premises of the City Hall again for special VIP guests and the corps diplomatique, where Mr. Ambassador of Japan Mr. Takeshi Osuga and Alderwoman for Culture of the City of Brussels Mrs. Nawal Ben Hamou, jointly will open the flower carpet, which will be followed by a light show! This light show will wrap-up the last day’s program, Sunday the 16th of August!
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