Romania-France Cultural Season, inaugurated by President Iohannis and President Macron

President Klaus Iohannis and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron inaugurated on Tuesday in Paris the Romania-France Cultural Season. An event that is included in the Roadmap of the Bilateral Strategic Partnership, the Romania-France Season will involve over 400 projects, both in France (November 28, 2018 – April 17, 2019) and in Romania (April 18-14 July 2019). The Romania-France Season proposes to the public cultural events, but also events in the fields of education and innovation, economy and entrepreneurship, gastronomy, tourism and sports, as well as cooperation between local communities. The inauguration of the series of events took place at the “Georges Pompidou” National Center for Art and Culture. The two presidents visited the exhibitions of artists Ciprian Muresan and Serban Savu and the installation of Adrian Ghenie “The Darwin Room 2013-2014”, which reproduces Rembrandt’s work “Philosopher in Meditation”. “The Romania-France Season was born with the dowry of our common heritage of ideals and aspirations, and proposes a generous and inclusive project open to ideas in dialogue. We have in the six months to come a festival of the memory that connects us, but also a forum of contemporary creation, innovation and entrepreneurship, and I invite the Romanians and the French people to enjoy these events,” Iohannis said in the address given during the inaugural ceremony. “By promoting cultural dialogue, we only defend a Europe of ideas, values and freedom, to the detriment of the spectrum of hatred, intolerance and populism. By firmly refusing internal divisions and toxic ideologies, we may have a Europe in which the expression of liberty is not only in museums, theaters and galleries, but in society,” Iohannis said. The Romanian president emphasized the influence of France on the culture of our country. “The France – Romania Cultural Season aims to be a tribute brought to this reality, while at the same time provoking today’s generations of creators to infuse with new meanings the dynamic of the exchanges between the two cultures, including through an authentic, honest and topical discourse, that the ones and the others at present. We therefore wish to find the young people in as many of the events that will follow in France and in Romania from now until July 14, 2019,” Klaus Iohannis added. He reminded that Romania will celebrate its Centenary three days from now and that one century ago Romanians united around the universal humanist values and democratic ideals that France had widely spread in the Western world. “Through its envoys in Romania, many of whom died in the line of duty, France proved to be an ally and a model. Today we celebrate joint history, including through this programme that is starting in Paris. It is not by chance that we find ourselves today in the country in which the international recognition of the Great Union took place. It was an ideal obtained through sacrifice and vision, placed in the service of national unity, but also in the spirit of a Europe of peace. It is, consequently, a privilege and a reason of joy to share with France the commitment to a project in which our countries find themselves once again united like brothers: the European Union,” Klaus Iohannis stated. He stated that just one month from now Romania will take over, for the first time, the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, at a time when our country plans to celebrated, alongside France, the values that form the basis of the European Union, via a joint cultural project. “The Season will reaffirm our conviction in the viability of capitalising on diversity in joint spirit and through a joint European future. The slogan of the Romanian Revolution of 1848, adapted by the Romanian students in Paris from the slogan of the French Revolution, was “Justice and Brotherhood.” 170 years later, we recall this slogan, sublimed in our joint patrimony of values and commitments,” the President said, deeming that “by promoting cultural dialogue we are only defending a Europe of ideas, of values and of freedom, at the expense of the spectre of hatred, intolerance and populism,” adding that “by firmly refusing internal divisions and toxic ideologies, we will be able to have a Europe in which the expression of freedom is reflected not only in museums, theatres and galleries, but also in society.” He added that the relationship between Romania and France stands out in the cultural field through the specific way in which our traditions are reconverted into modernity and shared by creators in a universal discourse, and “the Season will show that our nations have all reasons to invest in culture and creativity, to plan new platforms for cultural dialogue, on which to build their European future.”   Macron:  It is the first season that France organizes with a country in the EU   The French President, Emmanuel Macron, also underlined the symbolic character of the Romania – France Cultural Season. “It is the first season that France organizes with a country in the EU. This is in line with my deep conviction that sometimes we, among Europeans, we do not know frequent each other enough, we often think that Europe is just Brussels. It is Brussels, but also our mutual imaginary and our bilateral relations. It is an important symbol for me, more than a year after my visit to Romania, that together we can have this initiative. Culture is a deep bond of Europe,” the French president stated. He specified that the Cultural Season will illustrate the historical ties between the two countries because it aims at celebrating the Centennial of Modern Romania. “We have a great chance, namely, that we are not exactly the same. Culture can allow us to rediscover ourselves, where we have only evoked in the last few years the topics about the differences deemed as disabilities. Europe is multi-faceted and represents a chance,” Macron said. Prior to the ceremony, President Klaus Iohannis and his wife, Carmen Ionahhis, participated at the Invalids’ Dome in the concert dedicated to...

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