Bio : Born 1955 in Arad, Romania. Lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Description : With sampled image and sound sequences, referring to one another in a precisely calculated rhythmic alternation in four screen frames, C?lin Dan draws a portrait of the city of Bucharest. Dilapidated tower blocks next to estates of terraced houses, Roma families camping with their horses and carts in the wastelands in the midst of the city, broken streets and new shopping paradises – the video presents the former communist Bucharest as a city in upheaval, full of social contradictions and oppositions. Accompanied by Manele (traditional Romanian folk music and local hip hop) we follow a figure carrying a door on his back through Bucharest. Both “city guide” and city dweller, he is the modern version of P?cal? (the simpleton, the deceiver), a popular figure from Romanian folklore. Whenever he plans to leave behind his home and his condition of village fool, the older, wiser brother says: “Don’t forget to pull the door after you!”. And he does just that, time and again.