Q & A Session with Georges Bartoli @ Screening of the Animation film Josep
Channel: Acció Exterior i Unió Europea
Date: 2022-02-07

The evening at the French Institute in Budapest was opened by the heads of the organising institutions; Florent Heridel, Cultural Attaché of the French Institute and Krystyna Schreiber, Delegate of the Government of Catalonia to Central Europe. Georges Bartolí, French-Catalan journalist and nephew of the exiled Catalan artist Josep Bartolí was invited as special guest. After a warm welcome, the animation film “Josep” was presented within the framework of the international Anilogue Animation Festival. The film, directed by French director #Aurel, is based on the life of Josep Bartolí, a Catalan writer, cartoonist, and painter during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and aims to historically reappraise the situation of Catalan exiles in concentration camps in France.


Life of exiled Josep Bartolí: persecution through the Franco Regime

Like thousands of other Spanish and Catalan refugees, many of whom had fought on the side of the Spanish Republic, Josep Bartolí was seeking #exile in France but ended up in a French concentration camp. Bartolí managed to escape and came to Paris, where he worked on costume and scenery design, but was soon after arrested bny the German Gestapo near Vichy. He was then transported to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. He was able to escape again and made his way to Mexico via Casablanca, arriving there in 1943. Later, #Josep Bartolí went to Mexico where he met the painter #FridaKahlo, with whom he had a relationship, and finally received public recognition as a painter in New York.


Q&A session with Georges Bartolí: 

After the award-winning animation film, drew a spectacular picture of the life of Josep Bartolí, his nephew Georges Bartolí participated in a Q&A session with Moderator Máté Mohos. Georges Bartolí underlined the contribution the film made to historical recognition in Spain and in France and the impact for the families of imprisoners of the concentration camps in France. #Bartolí explained how ones ancestors’ history influences the path of future generations: “Look, I myself, who have not lived through exile, who was born in a secure place, in France in 1957, so, almost 20 years after all that, I, and plenty more like me, I am not alone in this (fighting for historical recognition), otherwise it would not be a theory, there are many of us who carry this suffering of our parents’, but rather than suffering, what we carry with us is anger, the anger of the injustice of losing a war which we didn’t fight, but we lost anyway, a war of democracy against freedom, of law against inhumanity.”

Many thanks to the Institut Français de Budapest, the Anilogue Film Festival, the moderator Máté Mohos and especially to George Bartolí for his participation.Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to Central Europe all rights reserved.