For the second edition of the Immersion Garden at the world’s oldest tulip festival, Tulip Time in Holland, MI, IGMPR introduced the Delftware floral benches with patterns designed by Heinen Delfts Blauw and Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk. Another great addition were over 30 large interpretation displays with artwork visuals collected from museums all over the world, explaining the Journey of the Tulip – how it travelled from East to West – , and tulip art and culture in the Netherlands. During 8 days we received thousands of visitors each day and had sold-out weekends and rave reviews. We let the images and video’s speak for itself!
Flower Culture
Since the implementations earlier this year in Guangzhou, Chongqing and Dafeng, the journey of our immersive blooming object on the occasion of 50 years of diplomatic relations between The Netherlands and China continued in September While navigating through lock downs and COVID restrictions our team managed to get everything up and running and in bloom on September 16 in Beijing’s Wenyu River Park and on September 29 in Shanghai’s World Expo Park. Over 15.000 flowers and and 1000 plants were used each time to create this immersive display, which is in the shape of the celebration logo, and is decorated with Delft Blue ceramic patterns, inspired by the first exchanges between The Netherlands and China.
Floral Celebration of 50 years Diplomatic Relations between the Netherlands and China
What started as an idea in late 2021 has come to bloom! In cooperation with the diplomatic network of the Netherlands in China and with the support of sponsors, local governments and partners, IGMPR will design, build and implement an Immersive Blooming Object based on the celebration logo, that will travel to 9 cities in China in 2022.
On 29 January the first implementation opened to the public in the beautiful Yuntai Garden in Guangzhou. Untill 20 February , over 120.000 visitors enjoyed the power of flowers and beautiful images were widely shared across (social) media.
Right after the Guangzhou we moved the installation to the city center of megapolis Chongqing, and 4 more cities will follow until May.
There is so much to share about the impact, the technicalities, the flowers, the organization, but we let these images speak for itself.
During a visit to the team of the Tulip Time Festival in Holland, MI, Ibo Gülsen gave an interview to Meredith Ter Haar of ABC Channel ’13 On your Side’ about our upcoming exhibition in May:
The latest edition of FloraCulture International, the magazine for the international ornamental horticulture industry, contains an interview with Mr Ibo Gülsen about his experience in Asia and his latest project in Myanmar.
Both Pieter Teisman and Ibo Gülsen visited the beautiful country of Myanmar on a regular basis in 2019 to prepare for the flower festival in the National Kandawgyi Gardens in Pyin Oo Lwin. “We were so astonished by the rich flower culture that Myanmar has in its daily life and arts, so we decided to dedicate the theme of the festival to the ‘Culture of Flowers’. The festival was held from December through January and attracted over 500.000 visitors in just 30 days.
You can read the full article here
In cooperation with the World Tulip Society, the Consulate of the Netherlands in Istanbul, and many others, we returned the original Istanbul tulip to its birthplace.
On May 6 Consul General Bart van Bolhuis presented the tulip to mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who greatly appreciated the gift. The typical Istanbul tulip with its almond shape and pointy daggers, was cultivated in the 17th-18th century in the Ottoman gardens, and were described extensively in the Tulip Album of 1725. The earliest documented record in Europe of this tulip was in 1811, where the tulip arrived from the Orient and were planted in the royal gardens in Paris. Soon after it appeared in other places in Europe and was registered as tulipa cornuata and later acuminata. The acuminata is still grown on a very small scale by a specialised grower in the Netherlands, and its history was only known within a small community of garden and tulip connaisseurs. The event gained national attention in the media across Turkey.
Mr. Ibo Gülsen of IGMPR lead the project and worked closely with tulip specialists in Europe and Turkey to unravel the history of the Istanbul Tulip. Beautiful pictures of the tulip in the royal gardens were made with the support of Paleis Het Loo.