The France-Romania Season kicks off
Paris saw the inauguration of the France-Romania Season, a cultural dialogue meant to support a Europe of ideas, values and freedoms.
Corina Cristea, 28.11.2018, 12:40
With presidents Klaus Iohannis and Emmanuel Macron attending, the Paris officials inaugurated the France-Romania cultural season, an event included in the roadmap of the bilateral strategic partnership, which will include hundreds of projects that will unfold until July 14. The events will cover such fields as culture, education and innovation, economy and entrepreneurship, gastronomy, tourism and sports as well as cooperation among local communities.
The purpose of the event is to promote and strengthen the relations between the two countries. The spirit of the 2019 France-Romania Season emerges in the posters presenting the event on its own Internet page – Edith Piaf in the arms of Count Dracula for the French edition of the webpage, and Napoleon together with Maria Tanase for the Romanian version of the page. The posters have a common slogan reading “Forget about clichés!” According to Jean Jacques Garnier, the general commissioner in charge of the French programme of the Season, the DNA of the France-Romania Season is Europe, the Francophonie and a view of the future of the bilateral relation and of the place of the French-Romanian relationship in Europe. He added that there are many clichés in the two countries and a lack of real knowledge of one another. He also reminded that 25% of Romanians have speaking and writing skills in French and 75% of Romanias pupils are studying French until the end of high school.
Brancusis studio featuring an installation by Mihai Olos, the dialogue created between Matisse and Pallady around the Romanian Blouse as well as more than 50 works by Andrei Cadere (1934-1978) to be displayed as part of a permanent exhibition are some of the cultural highlights of Romanias Season at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Visitors will also discover there an installation by Adrian Ghenie whose works have revolutionised the worlds contemporary art. Two other exhibitions will be inaugurated in spring: Ciprian Muresan and Serban Savu at Brancusis studio as well as a work dedicated to Isidore Isou (1925-2007).
Also starting in spring, the events unfolding under the France-Romania Seasonumbrellawill be hosted by Romania, the official launch of the 2019 Season in Bucharest being scheduled for April 18 to 21. This is the first season that France organises together with an EU country. The organisers, namely the French Institute and the Romanian Cultural Institute alongside the two countries governments says that Romania being chosen as partner in this Season was something natural, given that it is going to hold the presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019. At the same time, the France-Romania Season marks 100 years since the creation of modern Romania on December 1, 1918 as well as 100 years since the end of WWI.
