Operation Sunflower was launched during the spring of 2000 in the context of Brussels, European Capital of Culture 2000. The project was twinned with the city of Glasgow (Scotland).

 

The children of over 80 schools and organizations in Brussels took part in a massive sunflower planting project. They were encouraged to plant the seeds not just for their own pleasure, but also to consider how they could be used as a means of exchange and communication with other inhabitants of their city. Each group planned and developed its own strategy. A vast range of initiatives sprang up from the children’s fertile imagination.

 

Operation Sunflower was presented to the children as a story told by the Sound Tree, installed at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brussels), where a dozen schools took part in a spectacular sunflower art exhibition. In Glasgow, the Sound Tree was installed at the  Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.

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More than 120.000 sunflowers were planted in the city by the children of Brussels.