Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus

Literature and debate
BRUGGE 2002 never nurtured the ambition of offering a large-scale or representative programme
of literature. However, we did want literature and reflection to be present throughout
the year’s programme as a leitmotif and as a quietly palpable inspiration. The fact that
we opted for a poem as the theme and guiding principle for Brugge 2002 is an example of
this. Never before has poetry been able to convey an entire cultural programme to the public
so naturally.
From contemporary myths, to bedside literature and the fairy-tale brothel
We had the pleasure of hearing the opinions and ideas of European great masters in
the letters, who exchanged thoughts on the subject of myth and reality in today’s
Europe in a series of seven international literary meetings under the title The myth of
Europe. Among the guests, the cycle boasted such luminaries as Bart Moeyaert, Kader
Abdolah, Moses Isegawa, Jef Geeraerts, Andreï Makine, Adriaan Van Dis, Hella
Haasse, Orhan Pamuk, Jonathan Coe, Ben Okri, Julia Kristeva, Pierre Mertens, H.M.
Enzensberger and Cees Nooteboom, with Jean-Pierre Rondas as moderator.
There was the everyday reflection and the biography of the passer-by that would
become history in The People Network, connecting cultures, a multimedia network project
that was staged simultaneously in Berlin, Amsterdam and Bruges.
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There was the book festival for children: Under cover, the official opening of the
Flemish Young Persons’ Book Week.
There was the intimacy of reading and listening sessions in which actors opened
their bedside table literature for the audience in the De Werf theatre house. In this
series, entitled Reading Lamp, we were given a glance at the bookshelf of seven
Flemish and Dutch theatre companies.
And then there were also the individualistic excesses of the Bruges literary group ’t
Venijnig Gebroed with GAT, a literary experience which rewrote a local legend in a
multidisciplinary itinerary through the city.
There was room to play on moments of surging inspiration, such as the crossover
between Wijk-Up, the Heritage Unit project on oral heritage and the children’s programme
in co-operation with Art Basics for Children (ABC), out of which grew three
© GAL
© PATRICK DE SPIEGELAERE
The myth of Europe
Potterierei, Bruges