Brussels festival showcases EU's creativity agenda[fr][de] 

"Creativity is for all, not just a select few," said Odile Quintin, director-general of the Commission's education and culture department. 

The EU executive hopes the exhibition will highlight the importance of creativity and intercultural dialogue as part of a series of events to promote the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. 

Orbis Pictus, the art group behind the installation, has developed an "interactive exhibition" that allows visitors to actively use their imagination by playing with the objects, said its director Jiří Wald. 

The Czech-born art director told EurActiv that the project was initially started ten years ago to "develop the creative minds of foster-children". He hopes that the project will engage the imagination of young and adult Europeans, because he feels that EU citizens have neglected their imaginations in recent years. 

The show, presented in Canada, Japan, France, Italy and the Czech Republic, has proven to be a hit with the art-viewing public, with 1.7 million visitors attending the show's Japanese exhibition. 

The Orbis Pictus exhibition will be held at the Couleur Café festival, which takes place in Brussels on 26–29 June. Michel Durieux, the festival's director, said that the three-day festival exposes people to artists from different cultures, displaying the creative benefits of embracing cultural difference. 

Durieux suggested that with such a "great diversity" of culture, Europe has a great "richness" to draw from when building a culture of innovation and creativity. He noted that the diversity of artists reflects the diversity of Brussels itself, and cited the special benefit that a cross-cultural event has in a sometimes-divided Belgium. 

Karel Bartak, a senior Commission official, said that the EU executive had a long-standing relationship with the festival, as the Commission is "very sensitive to the festival's underlying philosophy" of intercultural dialogue. He said this was "one of the main motives" for the EU executive's support of the event. 

He also noted the important symbolism of having a Czech-led art project during the Czech Presidency of the European Union.