In 2017 it started Florathe International Flower Festival, thanks to the leadership of Jianping Fu, a hotel magnate in love with Cordoba. This particular origin, added to the very original proposal, aroused a massive reaction from the public and recorded 344,000 visits. Since then, this businessman’s entity, Zizai Cultura, has organized with various sponsors an event which includes more and more parallel activities.
The VII edition is organized with the motto ‘Multi-species‘ and consists of five installations: the Viana Palace, the Orive Palace, the Merced Palace, the Vimcorsa headquarters and the orange tree patio of the Mosque-Cathedral. María Van der Eyde took over the management of Flora in 2019.
Taking care not to reveal too much information before the day of opening to the public, these days follow one another. a multitude of events with flowers as the protagonists of a month of October which gave way to rain. And just like water makes plants grow, Van der Eyde has his sights set on a growing festival with a short-term goal: celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2027.
-How do you observe the evolution of this very particular cultural event since its beginnings?
-I think in the first edition, no one really believed that Flora could have the success that she had. Over the course of successive editions, we have seen that this is a very solid project, supported by Zizai Cultura and a super involved team. We want Flora to be understood as a city project and I think this is seen when the festival takes place every year: we work so that the city of Córdoba shines and shows that it has this particularity of being a city of flowers and plants. Just as we have the month of May in Córdoba, which is unique in the world, we also have this autumn which talks about botany from a contemporary and avant-garde point of view.
-Do you think in this sense that Flora is the most important cultural event of the fall above Cosmopoética? Which doesn’t mean I want them to understand each other as competitors.
-Cosmopoética is a very consolidated project, and its depth and importance are incredible. Flora is very different, it focuses on floral art and it’s true that the installations have a point of brilliance like a showcase. I think both are important for Córdoba and position it as a unique city with unique events.
-The common thread of this edition is the term “Multi-species”.
-We wanted to reconnect with the motto of the previous edition, “plant intelligence”, since sometimes plants even demonstrate greater intelligence than humans when it comes to solving problems. From there, on this occasion, with ‘Multispecies’ we intend to go beyond this anthropocentric era, because we must feel that we are part of a community in which we are human beings, but also plants, animals or micro -organisms that we inhabit. this planet.
-Flora brings together a very extensive program of parallel activities, do you have in mind to continue growing or do you think that the format you have arrived at is good?
-We will grow as long as we can. We depend a lot on the budget we have, and this on institutional patronage for which we must fight every year. This year, for example, thanks to the increase in sponsorship from the Town Hall and the Provincial Council, the first thing we did was to double the budget we have for facilities. For this reason, this year the installations will be much higher and there will be much more plant material. Some will reach six meters high. I can also foresee that all of them will have a much greater floral variety, and specifically that of Viana will stand out for its chromatic variety. But for the future, we have a lot of ideas in the room.
Activities program
-Can you move forward?
-Well, for example, we are very clear that, facing the tenth edition, in 2027, we would like to do something special and celebrate these first ten years of Flora.
“With the floral carpet it will be wonderful to be able to give a contemporary interpretation of the art of Julio Romero de Torres”
-As we have indicated, Flora’s number of side activities is increasingly attractive. Which ones would you highlight?
-We start on the 12th in Pozoblanco with an action that we will repeat on the 25th at the Palacio de la Merced, with an artist called Kino Luque. We also ask the artists of the Flora installations for greater involvement with citizens, which is why they all organize workshops or meetings. On the weekend we have a wonderful activity created specifically for the festival, in which Juan Pérez, Carmen Muñoz and Rocío Luna, which will take place throughout the Church of the Magdalena, the spectators will not be seated but in motion. On Sunday there will be a large floral carpet in tribute to Julio Romero de Torres in the Plaza del Potro. Also this weekend we will have Miguel Álvarez with a wonderful sound installation in the Huerto de Orive.
-This tribute rug to Julio Romero de Torres attracts a lot of attention, because it will be made by a special association.
-This is the Corpus Christi Carpet Manufacturers Association of the municipality of Pontesreas, Galicia. They have been making flower carpets all their lives following a tradition dating back to the mid-19th century. They are about to be listed as UNESCO intangible heritage. They contacted us about doing something in Flora and we thought it was wonderful to be able to offer a contemporary interpretation of their art, as we seek to combine heritage and history with the contemporary. For this we will rely on their ancestral technique, but with a design by a visual artist, Carlota Pereiro.
-How many people is the festival currently displacing as workers? I talk from the management team to the people who are currently helping to build the facility.
-I did the calculation the other day, and approximately between 250 and 270 people.
