The film directed by Vlad Trandafir starts withthe journey to Marseille, a city not loved by the filmmaker, who has had resentments toward it ever since his expat teenage years, when his family left Romania to settle in France. The end is marked by appreciation for the way the city is lighted by pieces of art spread all over the place. In 2013, Marseillewas designated the European Capital of Culture. The director himself crosses an emotional bridge with the support of art. The route is marked by two Romanian artists: Ion Grigorescu, painter, and Dan Perjovschi, graphic artist. The meeting with the two artists takes place in the context of the 2013 ”Le Pont” exhibition opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Marseille.
The interviews with the two artists are edited as a dialogue in time and vision, and Vlad Trandafir is the unseen host inThe Bridge.
Ion Grigorescu, born in 1945, is a painter, a drawerand anessayist. His video experiments– ”Boxing” (1977) and ”Dialogue with comrade Ceaușescu” (1978) are now presented in famous museums worldwide. The painter is known for his preoccupation with themes such as sexuality, human body, the omnipresence of politics. An opponent of the communist regime, he did not leave Romania, instead he withdrew from the public space and painted churches. His current notoriety brought him the participation to theMarseille exhibition where his sister in law, Catherina Kiss, was involved in the ”Le Pont” project.
Dan Perjovschi, born in 1961, is an artist connected to the„here and now”. Participant in the 1990 protests in the University Square of Bucharest and member of the Social Dialogue Group, many of his exhibitions are made on the museums' walls or in public spaces.Drawing, graffiti, performance, they are all „ephemerides”, as named by the artist, who has his work under display in many countries from all continents. His concern with social themes taken from the very place and time of the exhibition has brought him notoriety, especially for the humour and elegance of his approach.
The ”Le Pont” projectdeveloped in Marseille in 2013 brought these artists together, and the custodian Thierry Ollat speaks very highly of them.
Initiated as a testimonial to the Romanian presence at the French exhibition, Vlad Trandafir's film opens a dialogue between artists and artistic creeds and visions. The screening at the Elvira Popescu Cinema Theatre was attended by Ileana Bîrsan, film critic and by the director.The painter Ion Grigorescu was a special guest.After being screened at the 2014 Astra Film Festivaland at the 2015 FrancophonyFestivalin Tel Aviv, the documentary film The Bridge is now released on DVD.
Imagine: Dan Țuculescu
