This is the first hexagonal declination of the European operation. More than 700 events are planned despite sanitary restrictions.
Le Monde with AFP
The festivities devoting Villeurbanne (Rhône) first “French capital of culture” for 2022 started, Friday, January 7th at night near Lyon, despite the sanitary restrictions.
“Here, the culture is not and has never been a policy like the others. It has always kept all forms of regressions, impoverishment, narrowing of thought,” said in His inaugural speech, Cédric Van Styvendael, the socialist mayor of Villeurbanne.
At his side, on the forecourt of the famous National People’s Theater (NPT), the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, greeted a cultural life “extremely intense in the territories”. “When I arrived at the Ministry of Culture, I said that I was going to be the Minister of Artists and Territories. Here I concretize this commitment,” she added, briefly interrupted by intermittent show .
The opening of this event, which is the first hexagonal declination of the label of the “European capitals of culture”, symbolically carried out in the court of a primary school, with reference to the spirit of youth expressed by the municipality in his application.
Unpublished productions of Ariane Mnouchkin and Royal Deluxe
The title was assigned by the Ministry last spring, after a first preselection comprising nine cities – including the agglomeration community Greater Angoulême, Brest, Laval, Le Mans, Metz, Saint-Paul of Reunion and Sete.
Children’s videos projected on buildings, giant red giraffes walking in musical parade, glitter explosion … The inaugural procession, mixing freely official and population, left at the beginning of the evening towards the city hall. At the passage of the small crowd, limited for sanitary reasons, child faces were projected on the walls of the buildings, while their voices were broadcast by speakers. The all resulted from workshops carried out with artists at Juli Ferry primary school, prelude to “minimixes”, devices deployed throughout this cultural year in different institutions.
The programming of the event must have 700 events, 200 concerts, 22 heritage routes and 30 festivals, including one entirely composed and organized by a group of one hundred young Villeurbannais aged 12 to 25 years. Among these shows, unpublished productions of the Ariane Mnouchkin Sun Theater and the Royal Luxury Company.
Other marking event, the creation of the “largest musical axis of France” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the music festival, June 21: it will be a path 6.5 kilometers long allowing the public to play music between Villeurbanne and the City Hall of Lyon.