Humorror 2000 between transhumance and handsfree

The year 1997 was when the first edition of the Humorror Festival was organised by Connex and hosted by the French Institute. The caricature contest had a jury composed of Tudor Octavian, Mircea Dinescu, Horia-Roman Patapievici, Ion Barbu, Tudor Jebeleanu, Jeanete Ruben and Kris Crowe, it "employed" 138 caricaturists. The Grand Prize of $5,000 was won by the "Dracula" piece made by Pavel Botezatu. Among the laureates we counted Jean Pierre Morchoisine, Margareta Chicatii and Dunai Imre. The International Caricature Display that was opened during the festival consisted of three sections: "Portraits of horrible characters," "Dark Humour" and "Dark GSM Humour." The Theatre section "enjoyed" the representation of the Bulandra Theatre, students' theatre team and the show "The Decomposed Theatre" by Matei Visniec, directed by Catalina Buzoianu.

One year later, between 26 -31 October, Humorror was split in two:

a) LeThalia - a section dedicated to theatre that was held in the Toma Caragiu Hall of the Bulandra Theatre and

b) Schizographia - a section dedicated to caricature.

A number of 130 "karika tourists" from 25 countries exhibited 700 caricatures. The jury was made of Tudor Jebeleanu, Pavel Botezatu, Florian Crihana, Octav Mardale, Julian Swan and Tudor Octavian and "for safety's sake," Ronald Libin was added. He is the president of the European Karika tourists Federation.

In the "LeThalia" section the following theatre plays participated: "Levantul" by Mircea Cartarescu, "Poate Eleonora" by Gellu Naum and "Tacamuri de pui" by Spiro Gyorgy. The jury was made of Victor Rebengiuc, Claudiu Bleont, Alexandru Darie, Marian Popescu and Cristina Dumitrescu.

The president of the jury was Horia - Roman Patapievici. After a one-year-break, in 1999, Humorror made a powerful comeback under the aegis: "To be or not to be handsfree." The caricature section had also three sections: "Ethnogenesis and innovation north of the Danube," "Digital Romania" and "Miorita's relatives." Accepted works were displayed in the theatre's lobby for the duration of the festival.

The jury was composed of Horia-Roman Patapievici, Ion Barbu - the President, Tudor Octavian, Albert Poch, Octavian Mardale, Marcel Chirnoaga and Tudor Jebeleanu. At the Schizografia section, the caricaturist Florian Doru Crihana received the Grand Prize for the caricature called "Oaie Tatoo."

The first prize went to Mihai Boaca for "Fara cuvinte," the second prize to Mihai Ignat for "Turnul Babel" and the first prize to Pavel Constantin for "Roata etnogenezei". In the LeThalia section the prize for the best show went to the play "Azi... ma Ubu!," an adaptation after Alfred Jarry by Camelia Hancu.

The show featured Coca Bloos and the talented Mihaela Radescu. The show was produced by the Monday Theatre in Green Hours. The prize for the best actor went to Vasile Nedelcu at the Act Theate for his part in "ai cu violoncelul ce facem?" by Matei Visniec.

Connex offered two special prizes for the two great actors present at the show. Coca Bloos received a week in Paris and Horatiu Malaele a week in Barcelona for study and professional development.