See here the gallery where you will find from the Chinese side, among others:
– Beijing’s vice mayor Mr. Chen Gang
– Beijing Municipal Urban Planning Commission, director Ms. Huang Yan
– Chaoyang District vice mayor Mr. Dai Jilou
– Beijing Foreign Affairs Office, vice director Mr. Liu Yang
And from the Belgian side:
– Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht
– Belgian ambassador Bernard Pierre and Mrs. Karin Pierre
– Olivier Strebelle, the artist
– François Narmon, president of the asbl Strebelle in Beijing
– Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Belgian prime minister and board member of the asbl
– Alain Rens and his wife, board member of the asbl
and of course Sun Bin and myself.

During the ceremony the focal point stone and the wall stone were represented by life-sized pictures. The stones, the biggest one being 27 ton, will be put into place after the Olympics. Visitors will climb a small hill to reach the focal point stone; there will be a sign on the top of the stone where to put the camera to have the exact focal spot.
The area around the statues will be remodeled so the ground level will be increased to hide the foundations and to make a garden with pathways so visitors can stroll around the statues.
The wall stone will have all names carved as seen on the picture.
Our company name: Beijing Global Strategy Consulting Co., Ltd.

Before I update my blog software (and mess it all up again), just a few words: the ceremony on 23 May finally went well. Apparently the people over there in Brussels decided to put our names back on their website. They also did include our company in the flyers and in the proper location on the “wall” that will carry the names of the sponsoring companies and the main actors. Not that all was perfect but Olivier Strebelle did put a personal touch in his speech, mentioning our love & fight relation over the past four years. And Karel De Gucht turned out to be pleasant, friendly and handled the Chinese quite well.
Pictures are ready to post – if the new software will allow. So, patience.

Today 23 May 2008 the “Athletes Alley”, the huge sculpture of Olivier Strebelle in the Olympic Forest Park will be officially unveiled by the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.
The whole event is being followed by a large contingent of Belgian journalists. Seems they are being fed strange stories by the “ASBL Strebelle in Beijing”. Seems some people in Brussels suffer from memory loss.
Indeed, the new story is that Strebelle was awarded the sculpture “by winning two tenders”. Hmmm. Cool. Problem is, he didn’t. He joined the first tender years ago and results were never announced.
Later in 2006 another tender was launched to select “Olympic artwork”. We told Olivier Strebelle not to participate for many reasons and he never did. Hundreds and hundreds of sculptures were submitted and hundreds were shortlisted by a jury. No Strebelle. See a picture taken in Wangfujing Street in July 2006 when the shortlisted pieces were shown to the public. The scale models then traveled all over China, “to consult the public”. As for now, no decision on any choice was made public.
Sun Bin in Wangfujing Street, July 2006
So, what is the real story? Well, we lobbied and negotiated for four years with the Beijing officials. Substantial modifications were made to the original design till the Chinese art lovers felt happy. The City then officially agreed to accept the donation of the statue and officially appointed me as the representative as recognition of our hard work.
Oh well, some people probably did not like that and our names disappeared from their website and publications. Of course they kept us as far as possible from the journalists so they could dish up their own story without being disturbed.
The Strebelle project has been an interesting experience. It is already used in my seminars as an example of how to do successful lobbying in China, without greasing the hands of officials to get a project approved.
For Strebelle’s sculpture, getting the approval from Beijing seemed mission impossible. The statue is the only foreign artwork approved in the huge Olympic Park while many other countries and artists tried so hard too.
And no tender. Just through the hard work of Sun Bin and myself.
The “ASBL” is even shooting a movie about it. Don’t count on seeing much of us in it.
Much more to follow on the real story but have a look at previous entries on Strebelle on this blog.
And let’s see what happens later today…