Located in the middle of France, Bourges is a medium-sized, average city. Average? We
should also use other adjectives to qualify Bourges. Bourges is magnificent, ambitious, and
charming, Bourges is crucial. Yet Bourges has this adjective that sticks to its skin like a vice,
it is average. It is also the name of the main street of Bourges, the rue Moyenne. Thus,
Bourges is stuck in this intermediate place which pejoratively serves as a catch-all category
for so many cities in France and Europe. The average is never good enough. It does not
have the charm of the small ones. Nor the power of the big ones. Don’t we use in France the
“diagonal of the void” to qualify this part of the territory as only composed of small and
medium-sized cities? Void. No wonder the mayor of Bourges, Yann Galut, categorically
refuses to describe Bourges as a medium-sized city and prefers to speak of a "city on a
human scale".
How many cities in Europe are in the same situation as Bourges? Cities with less than
100,000 inhabitants represent half of the citizens in France and in the European Union (more than 150 million people).
How to ensure that Europe becomes obvious for cities like Bourges? How to bring Europe to
the most remote places? How to refocus Europe? We built our project around these
questions.
Bourges has the legitimacy to participate in a European-scale competition. In the Middle
Ages and during the Renaissance, Bourges was a great humanist centre, with the Livre des
Heures of Duc de Berry, the treasurer Jacques Coeur, a renowned university and a cathedral
on the pilgrimage road or path to Compostela. Its contemporary history is that of French
cultural decentralization orchestrated by André Malraux (writer, Minister of Culture 1958-69)
with the opening of the first Maison de la Culture in France in 1963. Bourges has long been
a land of creation and innovation in terms of culture through the Printemps de Bourges but
also the cultural wasteland Antre Peaux.
En France, les financements ont été concentrés sur les périphéries des métropoles plutôt que sur les villes petites et moyennes. Cela a fortement impacté les territoires périphériques, les petites villes et les villes médianes, la ruralité et ce qu’on appelle aujourd’hui l’ultra-ruralité. Mais les temps changent. Et nous pouvons y concourir avec l’aide de la Capitale européenne de la Culture. Les villes petites et moyennes sont ce que nous appelons des territoires d’avenir, elles sont la colonne vertébrale de l’Union européenne et elles peuvent être l’avenir de l’Europe. Le titre de Capitale européenne de la Culture est le levier idéal pour que Bourges et la Région Centre Val de Loire développent un projet de transformation – urbaine, sociale, économique, de bien-être, en mobilité douce et citoyenne. Car Bourges a conçu un projet ambitieux et innovant qui offre un nouvel avenir aux villes comme la nôtre. Nous sommes au cœur de la France et au cœur de l’Europe.
