Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus

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24 the finishing touches put to it even now. Conductors, musicians, singers, directors,
artists and audiences are all over the moon about the excellent acoustics and the possibilities
offered by the building.
BRUGGE 2002
In order to find out how a number of renowned contemporary architects viewed the
city, the architecture association Archipel organised a cycle of lectures under the title
Architects-Artists-Visionaries. The four lectures were very well attended, especially that
involving Toyo Ito, which was held in the main hall of the Concertgebouw.
The Masterpiece is a Flemish Government Architect (Vlaamse Bouwmeester) project
aimed at enabling young artists to develop a new view of how to incorporate art into
new buildings. On the occasion of 2002, Bruges was chosen as the work area. Five
young artists from different disciplines each chose one site on which to work, from a
list of buildings. Under the supervision of Ivo Van Hove, they produced five creative
projects: a postcard project for the bathroom block on the Canal Island, a “fit-o-meter”
of words and symbols at Toyo Ito’s pavilion, a newspaper with images as a “museum
in progress”, a video about a horse and cart in the underground car park beneath the
Concertgebouw, and a choreography in a sculpture on the Coupure bridge.
A contemporary meaning for monuments and heritage
The historic city centre of Bruges was declared a UNESCO world heritage site at the
end of 2000. In the run-up to BRUGGE 2002 a great deal of restoration work was carried
out, and buildings that underwent restoration included the municipal theatre,
the Brugse Vrije, the tower of the Church of Our Lady, the reception rooms of the City
Hall and the Civil Registry Office on the Burg. For the latter project, which included
a remarkable restoration of the polychromy, the city of Bruges won the Flemish
Monument Award, 2001.
BRUGGE 2002 also hosted the official opening of the Heritage Days, 2002. This marked
the start of a ten-day festival with an itinerary taking in unknown and well-known
monuments, houses and gardens opened to the public, a contemporary programme
entitled Music and Architecture by Champ d’Action, the young people’s project
Frontsid[t]e/Back[-]side, a grand finale with plants and flowers in the city, and a festive
closing event in the 150-year-old Astrid Park.
In addition to the Heritage Days, BRUGGE 2002 also included two other national initiatives
in its programme: the heritage weekend on April 20 th and 21 st with a series of
events around the theme of “collecting” and organised by the Bruges Heritage Unit,
and the first Architecture Day, organised by the Flemish Institute of Architecture,
which included tours of BRUGGE 2002’s architecture projects.