Mircea Cantor

Artist Mircea Cantor was born 1977 in Romania and currently lives in Paris and Spain. He is best known for creating short political films like “Shadow for a While” and “Deerparture”. Shadow for a While is a 16mm film shot in black and white that projects a flag’s shadow image on a wooden rod hanging at a 45-degree angle blowing in the wind slowly burning. The flames are somewhat invisible at the start to the naked eye but in a short time it becomes very apparent to the viewer what is happening. This film sends a strong political message to all forms governments. Since it is just the shadow of a flag that we see it can be apply to any nation. And like most nations that have experienced revolutions or have had times of civil unrest, the revolutionists are much like the flames, almost transparent from the start. The film ends with the flag consumed in flames falling off the wooden rod that it was once attached to, leaving only the rod, which I believe to be the backbone or the raw land that is contained within boarders of the country in place. Now a new flag, which is a representation of another form of government, can now be reattached to the wooden rod.
In the film “Deerparture” a deer is in an all white confined 20’ by 20’ ft. space with a live wolf. The film is about 2 minutes and 50 seconds long and loops, it is shot in color, and is without sound. The filmmaker used cuts and a host camera angles to heighten the drama. It’s really an amazing piece of work. I think the film sends a strong political message in a very poetical way. My interruption of the film was that the two animals were symbolic; of two sovereign states that boarder each other. One state (the wolf) has a strong military, which it uses to dominate over the lesser state (the deer). The wolf does not attack right away but I feel if the wolf is left in the room, unfed, unhindered, long enough, it eventually will. The deer’s fear pushes her against an opposite wall where all can do is watch the wolf and wait for his eventfully attack.