The opening ceremony was a grandiose affair, including an overhead dance with the dancers performing 15 metres above the crowd in a glowing metal sphere. The people danced to the sound of Klezmer orchestras, 1,000 chorus singers sang repertoires from Eastern Europe in unison, while giant babies, half angels, half devils, seven metre-high sculptures, wove their way through the gathering of 300,000 people. The parade ended in a magnificent firework display, set off from 40-metre high cranes.

When they became European Capital of Culture in 2004, Lille and its region profoundly changed the image of the city and of a whole region. In 2006, with Bombaysers, the first of these biennial events in Lille brought an incredible meeting between Flemish and Indian cultures. By hosting nearly a million participants during this three-month period, Lille and the Nord region achieved even greater influence and appeal.

The second Lille 3000 event sets out to discover a Europe transfigured 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall: Istanbul, Berlin, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Moscow… “From West to East, this event takes us across Central and Eastern Europe, as far as Istanbul,” explains Martine Aubry, president of Lille 3000 and Mayor of Lille. “Over these four months, we are hosting a calendar of events that is full to bursting with all the arts throughout our cities, but also in the districts and in the streets”.

Two key events are on the programme: the Les frontières invisibles [Invisible Borders] exhibition at the Tri postal, a colourful building in which three floors are devoted to a new Central Europe, creating a journey in pictures, drawings or videos, from capital to capital; and Istanbul traversée, another major exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, the first major exhibition on Istanbul to be held in France. Here you can see the many facets of a city that sits between two extremes – East and West, modernity and tradition, and the interstices of a town dedicated to the mixing of genres. The former Saint-Sauveur station, an industrial building recently transformed into an arts venue, is putting on lots of events, including exhibitions, film screenings, cafés and dance floors. Here you will find new ambiences, sounds and worlds. The strange and bewitching Hypnos exhibition at the Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse, with its surrealist background, illustrates the interpretation and appropriation of the unconscious by European artists, whilst playing on the interdisciplinarity between paintings, drawings, sculptures, cinema and literature. The Maisons Folie of Wazemmes and Moulins in Lille, but also those of Maubeuge, Tourcoing, Villeneuve d’Ascq and Lambersart are celebrating their fifth anniversary this year. Work and social spaces, they are hosting an abundance of shows, exhibitions and artists’ studios, and offer everyone a chance to learn more about innovative artistic practices.

Forty-six communes are involved in the event, and around thirty companies are partnering it. Ten Lille neighbourhoods are also wearing the colours of a European city or country, such as the city centre, which is celebrating the Czech Republic on 21 June. The idea is to get as many local people involved as possible, notably through volunteer ambassadors. “Two thirds of the events are free. But with the same 7-euro ticket, you can see everything for a day, with free transport thrown in,” points out Didier Fusillier, director of Lille 3000.

The intermingling of cultures and arts is therefore at the heart of the event, which will reach as far as Tournai and Courtrai in Belgium, but will also involve Roubaix, where fashion enthusiasts will be able to enjoy a retrospective of 30 years of the career of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, in the town’s swimming pool, from 21 March to 21 June. “Lille 3000 is a cultural and artistic exploration of a continent, our continent, in all its riches, in what brings us together and what distinguishes us,” points out Martine Aubry.

Annik Bianchini
(Source:DCI)

Webbplats för Lille 3000