Before the eyes of the public a carpet will be made according to a design by a Belgian artist Mark Schauteet. “Besides the Prague emblem and the EU logo, art-nouveau ornamentation is also a part of the carpet. This is because both Prague and Brussels are famous for their significant art-nouveau buildings,” said the Flemish Attaché for Commercial and Economic Affairs, Alain Decraene, who inspired the creation of the flower carpet in Prague. “The truth is that it will be smaller than the one we admired in Brussels, but as begonias are most beautiful at the end of summertime, it will of course be wonderful,” added Decraene.
Best view from the tower
Just for comparison, the Brussels flower carpet was 2000 m2 in size, while the Prague version will be about 500 m2. The city council will provide admirers of the impressive creation with a small viewing platform to be able to see the flowers better. By far the best view will be from the City Hall tower. The Prague carpet will remain only until 5th September. “Unfortunately, even long-lasting begonias eventually begin to wilt,” said Decraene.
Volunteers for preparation
About 30 people will make the flower carpet, of which 20 are students from Bohemia regia, a private secondary school of horticulture. “We addressed three Prague horticultural schools but only one of them showed interest,” said Decraene. The students will work together with another 10 volunteers from another private company involved in the flower trade. Within a short time they will have to process about 150,000 begonia flowers which are grown near Gent in Belgium.
A real honour for Prague
In Brussels a flower carpet is created every two years and in the last ten years a similar work of art has only appeared in Warsaw and Tel Aviv. Therefore it is a really exceptional event. A smaller carpet will also appear in Shanghai’s Expo 2010.
“Flower carpets like this are usually made on the occasion of really important events which, of course is the Belgian EU presidency,” added Renilde Loeckx, Consul General of Belgium in CZ. The installation will cost about 800,000 CZK, being sponsored by one of the Czech banks, a subsidiary of one of the major Belgian banks.
