Brussels (AFP)

Brussels, where Agnès Varda was born in 1928, has always reminded her of her childhood: a kitchen garden and a movie theater in the Belgian capital now bear the name of the French director who died in March, in order to immortalize this link.

The tribute was made Tuesday in the presence of friends and relatives of this figure of the New wave, Ixelles, commune in the heart of the Brussels agglomeration, where it was born on March 30, 1928.

His father, a French naturalized Greek after serving in the Legion during the 1914-18 war, had settled in Belgium with his French wife because he worked there as an engineer in the industry.

Agnès Varda, the third in a family of five, lived to her 12th birthday in the Belgian capital, not far from the Ixelles ponds.

According to her daughter, Rosalie Varda, who took part in the tribute on Tuesday, the filmmaker and visual artist has often returned to Ixelles, particularly at an exhibition that was dedicated to her in 2016.

"It was like a madeleine Proust for her to come back here (...) There was always something a little soft when she spoke of Belgium," said Rosalie Varda to AFP.

A commemorative plaque was unveiled on the facade of Agnès Varda's birthplace, in the presence of her brother Jean and her sister Sylvie.

Not far from there, a room at the Flagey entertainment complex was officially named on the evening of the artist's name, "Studio 5 - Agnès Varda".

In a nod to its green fiber and its work on potatoes (the Patatutopia exhibition created for the Venice Biennale in 2003), an urban vegetable garden managed collectively will also take its name in his native town.

"She has always been attracted to vegetables and I think if she can see us somewhere, she will be very happy to have a little piece of vegetable garden in Ixelles," said her daughter, costume designer for the cinema, with a smile. theater.

Companion of the filmmaker Jacques Demy (died in 1990) with whom she had a son, Agnès Varda left a dreamlike, humanist, radical but also whimsical and funny work.

She is the author of "Cléo de 5 à 7" (1962), "Sans toit ni loi" (film awarded by a Golden Lion in Venice in 1985) or "Les plages d'Agnès" (2009) .

© 2019 AFP