When Paris was chosen in 1989, it was still a «European City of Culture», an initiative of which France was at the origin through Jack Lang, Minister of Culture at the time and his Greek counterpart Mélina Mercouri. This cultural year, less marked at the time than today, coincides especially with the festivities of the bicentenary of the Revolution, in particular the famous parade of 14-July of Jean-Paul Goude on the Champs Élysées. Cultural facilities inaugurated this year will also have a lasting impact on the city’s landscape: the Opéra Bastille.
The three other French cities named – Avignon in 2000, Lille in 2004 and Marseille in 2013 – have set up artistic programmes that have left lasting traces in the local landscape and contributed to the promotion of these metropolises at national and even international level thanks to significant achievements. Feedback on these flagship experiences before the selection of the new French capital between Bourges, Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier and Rouen.
Avignon exhibits «Beauty»
in its streets
The year 2000 occupies a special place in the European Capitals of Culture; whereas previously only one city was named, the millennium begins with nine capitals, two of which are preparing to join the European Union. They meet in an association of European Cities of Culture to encourage cooperation with joint initiatives such as Trans Danse Europe, a European dance tour initiated by a company from Avignon 2000.
In France, the entry into the new millennium is celebrated with the Mission 2000 made of major exhibitions in some cities of France, including Avignon. Thus opens in the City of the Popes a large exhibition celebrating «Beauty», summoning all the registers of art, from design to cinema, with 70 French and foreign creators infusing throughout the city. Christian Lacroix has covered streets and monuments, while the church of Saint-Charles hosts the exhibition of the singer Björk or Alexander McQueen at the Pommer baths, masterpiece of the XIXe century restored for the occasion. The exhibition attempts bold comparisons between the eras, from Nicholas of Leiden to Bill Viola, and cultures, from Indian art to China and classical antiquity.
The exhibition will welcome approximately 195,000 paying visitors. In July, the 54th avignon festival Theatre will record attendance since its inception with 137,000 tickets sold, up nearly 20% from the previous year. Finally Avignon 2000 leaves the city the Lambert Collection, a contemporary art museum born from the gift of art dealer and collector Yvon Lambert of 350 works from the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
The Folies houses of Lille, places of celebration between artists and inhabitants
In 2004, Lille became the third French city to benefit from this title. More than 2,500 events were organized with 17,000 artists, including a large opening party that brought together nearly 730,000 people. The event is a public success with 9 million visitors who visited the capital of the North during this year with a real impact on the attendance of hotels (+30%) and employment (+7% in the sector of commerce, hospitality and culture). « Lille 2004 has earned ten years of fame for our territory ” summarizes Mayor Martine Aubry.
For this year, the city had set up an ambitious urban development and heritage rehabilitation program to offer new cultural facilities such as the reopening of the Lille Opera. « From this exceptional year, we still have strong images like The parallel worlds or the countless Metamorphoses, but also lasting traces that are our houses Folies ”, the mayor continues. These twelve exhibition spaces designed by Didier Fusillier have opened in new sites such as old factories or heritage sites. Installed in the buildings of an old brewery, the Maison Folie Moulins has thus become a multidisciplinary cultural equipment, just as Folie Wazemmes, a former spinning mill.
These twelve projects are the legacy of Lille 2004, with, for each of them, the construction of a specific equipment (theater, artists' workshops, exhibition venues, etc.) and an artistic program. Twenty years later, the adventure continues on the territory with the establishment of lille3000, a great artistic program punctuated by thematic highlights.
The Mucem, one of the emblems of Marseille
In 2013, Marseille, in partnership with a large number of cities in the Bouches-du-Rhône such as Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Aubagne, Gardanne, Istres, Martigues and Salon-de-Provence, was selected. In total, nearly eleven million people visited the Phocaean city, which in that year hosted a new major cultural facility: the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean – or Mucem. “ Numerous studies show that the arrival of a large cultural equipment in a city that lacks it can have a very significant economic ripple effect ” said Bruno Suzzarelli, President of the Association. Successful bet since in seven months of operation the first year, it attracted 1.3 million visitors and three years after its opening, a study of the Mucem, Bouches-du-Rhône Tourisme and the CCI Marseille Provence shows that this equipment generates 129,€4 million in economic benefits for the entire department. In 58% of cases, the Mucem contributes to the arrival in Marseille or in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
Located on the edge of the Mediterranean at the entrance of the Old Port and covered with a veil of lace, this museum dedicated to the cultures of the Mediterranean celebrates today its ten years and has more than fulfilled its contract. Its initial target of 300,000 visitors per year was significantly exceeded, with 1.2 million visitors to its collections of more than 350,000 works, objects, documents and photographs last year. The institution thus enters the circle of the fifty most visited museums in the world. “ There is also the phenomenon of the image, very important: a large cultural equipment such as ours can contribute to change the image of the city at the national and international level and encourage businesses to settle there "continues Bruno Suzzarelli. Proof of this is Marseille-Euroméditerranée, a vast urban renewal project begun in the heart of the city with the rehabilitation of former industrial and commercial areas and the renovation of existing infrastructure.
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