Twinning : Saint-Germain-Des-Prés / Chengdu IFS
Based on the initiative of André Cardinali. Ambassador of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province, located in west-central China at the foot of the Tibetan plateau.
Lucien Bodard describes his childhood in a realistic and amusing way in his novel "Monsieur le Consul". With its 14 million inhabitants, the city is renowned for its quality of life with its friendly inhabitants.
The surrounding mountains are home to most of the world's 1,600 remaining wild pandas.
Chengdu is considered to be one of the most pleasant provincial capitals in China and is praised by many.
Modern and relaxed, the capital of Sichuan offers a wide range of places and activities: visit the many temples and parks of the city, relax in a tea house, enjoy a Chinese opera show, taste the famous hotpot...
The city of Chengdu is highly developed in the field of electronics and high technology.
Is China's future in the West?
In any case, this is Chengdu's bet. This is why the twinning between Saint-Germain des Prés and IFS-Chengdu promises a good future with cultural, economic and tourist exchanges between our two peoples.
Twinning Saint-Germain-des-Prés - Chengdu IFS
14 AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
Initiated by André Cardinali, Ambassador of Saint-Germain-des-Prés & Thomas Thompson, Director Manfei China.
This is the first time in France that a twinning has received countless nominations and won 14 awards for Innovation and Excellence, both in China and internationally:
- Chengdu. Golden Award - 2017
- Bangkok. Gold Award - 2018
- Shanghai. Gold award - 2018
- Hong Kong. Silver Award - 2018
- Hong Kong. Silver Award - 2018
- Hong Kong. Stevie Award - 2018
- London. Gold Stevie Award - 2018
- Hong Kong. Gold Award - 2019
- Cannes. Heavent Awards - 2019
- Paris. Saint-Germain-des-Prés Prize, 6th district of Paris - 2021
- Paris. Prix d'Honneur Comité Saint-Germain-des-Prés - 2021
- Ile-de-France Region Prize - 2021
- Sichuan Region Award - 2021
- Jinjiang District Prize - 2021
The Twinning between the Comité Saint-Germain-des-Prés and IFS Chengdu was signed on 2 March 2017 at the town hall of the 6th arrondissement under the patronage of the town hall of the 6th arrondissement of Paris and the district of Jinjiang.
To celebrate the twinning and friendship between the two Left Bank districts of Paris and Chengdu, an Olive Tree and a commemorative plaque were inaugurated by Jean-Pierre Lecoq, Mayor of the 6th arrondissement of Paris and Miroslav Siljegovic, President of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Committee, in the courtyard of the town hall of the 6th arrondissement of Paris in front of the statue of the Centaur's Battle:
Inauguration of the plaque on Hongxing Road in Chengdu in front of Le Café de Flore, in the presence of Miroslav Siljegovic, President of the Comité Saint-Germain des Prés - Christina Hau, General Manager of Wharf China - Jean-Pierre Lecoq, Mayor of the 6th arrondissement of Paris:
Monique Mouroux, general delegate of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Committee and Jean-Charles Bossard, 1st deputy mayor of the 6th district, went with André Cardinali to Chengdu in China to sign the twinning agreement in Chinese:
Inauguration of the Friendship Tree plaque and the Boulevard Saint-Germain plaque on Hongxing Road in Chengdu in the presence of :
- Mr Wenhui Wu
- Ms Christina Hau
- Ms Monique Mouroux
- Mr Jean-Charles Bossard
- Mr André Cardinali
- Mr Olivier Mousson, President of the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale
To give credibility to this twinning, several events were organised in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Chengdu:
Café de Flore in Chengdu
Café de Flore embellished Chengdu with its presence, November 2017, giving the people of Chengdu the opportunity to better discover the culture of the Left Bank and Parisian cafés through an ephemeral installation.
From the care taken with the specialities served, to the training of the boys at Le Flore de Chengdu, everything has been thought of to honour the legendary Café de Flore, from the reproduction of the general and floral decoration of the façade. It was a great success with 95,000 visitors in 30 days.
Representatives from the Jinjiang District Government, Chengdu IFS, the Comité Saint-Germain and the Consulate General of France were pleased to launch a month of festivities between France and China.
Operation Panda
This first charitable action of the Chinese in France aims to constitute a link between our two districts and our two cities, the panda being from now on one of the symbols of the Chinese-French friendship.
The Comité Saint-Germain-des-Prés organised a sale of stuffed pandas in a chalet on Place Saint-Germain from 1 December to 7 January 2018. The profits were donated in full to the Necker - Enfants Malades hospital. ( 34 000 Euros )
Thousands of visitors came to take pictures of themselves in front of the panda.
The artist Richard Orlinski created a giant panda especially for this event. After being presented at Place Saint-Germain, the panda was exhibited at Beauval Zoo, then in front of the town hall of the 6th arrondissement and put in place permanently in the new playground of the Necker Hospital in June 2018 (Value 220,000 euros):
Saint-Germain course
The twinning is associated with the Parcours Saint-Germain, an annual event that brings contemporary art into the public space.
For the first time, two artists from Chengdu exhibited using materials representative of their region in Sichuan. June 2018.
In this context, Chengdu IFS collaborates with the Parcours Saint-Germain by involving artists from Sichuan, creating a dialogue through the use of traditional Chinese culture.
Palace - Chen Weicai
CHEN Weicai used more than two tons of traditional tiles from Luozhen, a village in Sichuan, for an installation called "Palace".
This invited the many visitors to the Fürstenberg square to reverie.
Palais was created especially for the Parcours Saint Germain by Chen Weicai.
He chose a traditional Chinese architectural material - roof tiles - to create a public and private space on Fürstenberg Square.
The curves of the walls surrounded by the trees of the square, adding a meeting place with a resolutely Chinese tone for Paris lovers.
Waterfall - Zhao Mi
ZHAO Mi used more than 700 bamboo rods, assembled according to an ancestral technique still used today for building scaffolding.
"Waterfallcreated especially for the Parcours Saint Germain by Szechuan artist Zhao Mi, uses 700 bamboo rods, canvas and water to draw a scroll of Chinese paintings.
Bamboo, beyond its status as a symbol of China, is abundant especially in Sichuan. The local accessibility of this recyclable material led Zhao Mi to create a series of works using it in different ways to provoke reflection on its potential.
Here, the artist brings two cultures together and symbolises the salvation of his home town which is developing its openness to the world.
Chengdu route
Co-organised in partnership with the Parcours Saint-Germain, the Parcours Chengdu was thus created, October 2018, allowing the inhabitants of Chengdu to discover international artists.
For the first time, based on an original idea by André Cardinali, MadC, one of the few internationally recognised women in the street art movementwith a contemporary Chinese calligrapher, the artist MA KunIn this way, he worked on his interpretation of a 14th century Sichuan poem in flat colours with the transparent abstraction of MadC.
Monique Mouroux, Wunhui Wu, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, Christina Hau and André Cardinali, inaugurated this 80-metre fresco, installed on Hongxing Road, called Bd Saint-Germain:
The Dutch Michiel Martens & Jetske VisserIn the summer of 2005, the artists of the "Holons Light" project installed a group of spheres with hypnotic lights that rotate continuously. As they rotate, the loose bands are illuminated and seem to merge with each other:
The artists CHEN Weicai and ZHAO MiAfter Saint-Germain-des-Prés, they reinterpreted their Parisian works for this first edition of the Parcours Chengdu:
Donation of masks for the town hall of the 6th arrondissement
After the charity action with the Necker hospital, our friends from Chengdu IFS are once again showing their attachment to the twinning and to the inhabitants of Saint-Germain-des-Prés...
They donate 50,000 sanitary masks.
Jean-Pierre Lecoq, Mayor of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, and Monique Mouroux, General Delegate of the Comité Saint-Germain-des-Prés, received this gift on the initiative of André Cardinali in the framework of the twinning between Chengdu IFS and the Comité Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
The masks left Chengdu on 3 April and after a three-month journey through several airports: Hong Kong, Budapest and London, they finally arrived in the courtyard of the town hall on 21 July.
In 2020, several events were in preparation in Chengdu: a panda 2 operation for a children's hospital, the Saint-Germain Village and the opening of a permanent Café de Flore, all of which were halted because of Covid and postponed to 2021.
The Saint-Germain Committee and IFS Chengdu would like to thank all the inhabitants and actors of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Chengdu who participated and supported this cross twinning.
