Three questions to our HISTOFEST guests

The first HISTOFEST history festival took place on 15 October 2025 at the Balval Plaza Shopping Centre. Programme highlights were, among others, the screening of two documentary films, live music and a bookbinding workshop.

We asked three questions to

Mihai Grecu, visual artist and director of “Nicolae”

When did you start doing art and what kind of art do you do?

I began making art in my childhood, during the last years of Ceaușescu’s dictatorship in Romania. With very limited access to cinema or television, I first turned to drawing and painting. Later, I discovered digital and media tools, and for more than two decades I’ve been working with video art, experimental film, and now artificial intelligence, always at the crossroads of technology and imagination.

What motivates you to do art and what is the key message behind your work?

What motivates me is the way images can shape our perception of reality. I’m fascinated by the thin line between truth and fiction, propaganda and memory, dream and documentation. My work often deals with political allegory, ecological crisis, and the strange persistence of totalitarianism. The key message is to question what we see, to understand that images are rarely neutral, they can manipulate, seduce, or liberate.

Why should people watch your film “Nicolae”?

People should see my film because it’s a document about our present and future. It is a journey into post-truth, where dictators can return as holograms, where nostalgia becomes dangerous, and where technology allows us to reimagine history itself. It’s unsettling, sometimes absurd, but also necessary since what we believe can be more powerful than what actually happened. It was a premonition of what actually happens in Romania and many other countries as of today.

Ivan K., musician and composer

When did you start playing guitar?

I started learning the basics of guitar at the age of ten. My serious involvement with music began in high school, with my first performances with bands.

What genre do you enjoy playing the most and who are your role models?

I mostly enjoy playing rock, but over time I’ve also come to appreciate other genres. My influences are Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, and many other guitarists.

What did you play at the very first Histofest?

It was a great pleasure to perform in Belval. On my guitar I played pop rock songs with a slight touch of the Balkan sound.

Danie Köller-Willems, bookbinder

How did you become a bookbinder?

My father was and still is a bookbinder and since the bookbinding place was in our home I always helped in my free time. Aged 16, I started my apprenticeship and with 21 I made my “Maîtrise en reliure”. In 1999 I followed a book and paper restauration class in Paris. (1 day/week) and after this I opened my own book restauration store. In October 2020, I bought the handcraft bookbinding from Mediahuis (Luxemburger Wort).

What was so far your most exciting (bookbinding) project?

That’s very difficult to say, as our job has many different projects… I love to work for and with students on their thesis. I love to do leatherbinding and use marbled paper as it makes every book special and unique. And I love to give any bundle of sheets or old book or magazine an nice looking and perfect fitting cover.

How was it like to lead a bookbinding workshop at the very first Histofest?

It was a pleasure to show to students, teachers, visitors,… how to do a simple stitch sewing with a few sheets and have like this a booklet you can use AND make it yourself at home. There were a lot of people getting ideas to use the one they made at the Histofest but also some that had ideas to make something for their friends or as a gift… And we had really nice talks about books and everything around books. Merci to be able to have this nice experience.

^{Photos by Robert Beta}