Tomorrow, October 28, opens the exhibition Activities – by Dan Perjovschi, at 7 p.m., at the Indecis artist-run space (Liberty Square Timisoara, Str. Coriolan Brediceanu, nr. 2, et. 1, intercom 08). The event is part of the Sit+Read Artbook Fair 2022 program, a cultural project that brings together in Timisoara 40 contemporary artists, designers, magazine creators, printers, independent publishers, and book distributors from the country and abroad.
“Activities” is a retrospective of civic-artistic practices. What it’s like to be an artist outside the art scene. Objects, projects, donations, solidarity, partnerships, empathy, trust, time, money, and knowledge.
I’m not an activist and I’m not a political artist. My art is. I took my portion of gas and hissed bullets at my ears on December 89 and in the Mineriads of the 90s. Now I’m a drone. I need a distance to find the image or the word that sums up the activistic, civic, and political subject that is in the beating of the sticks. Roşia Montană. No blabla, with humor and empathy. I’m not in front of the shake cord. My drawing is.
People download what I do and put it on placards or on their bodies. I am asked for drawings for T-shirts, Facebook pages, logos, banners, diploma papers, diplomas, books, invitations, school walls, mugs, and bags. I am asked to participate. Permanent. Free of charge. Urgent. To whom deserves I did not say No. Never.
I like artist-run spaces, I like independent editors, I like artist books. I like the projects at the grassroots. I’m doing everything I can to support them.
Undecided & The Secret Garden
I’m here.
I am now.
-Dan Perjovschi
The exhibition will be open until 15.01.2023.
Dan Perjovschi lives in Bucharest and Sibiu. He draws critically with humor directly on the walls of art institutions around the world commenting politically, socially, and culturally on the daily life of global society. His black-and-white drawings are visual editorials. He has had personal exhibitions at Tate Modern London, MoMA New York, Macro Roma, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Reykyavik Art Museum, Vannabbe Eindhoven, Ludwig Cologne, Nasher Duke University or Kiasma Helsinki and group exhibitions at Centre Pompidou Paris, Tate Liverpool, Castello di Rivoli Torino, MoMA San Francisco, MUAC Mexico, MAM Warsaw, MCBA Lausanne or MOT Tokyo.
And at In-Context Slanic Moldova, On the Road 101 Bucharest, Balamuc Timișoara, White Cuib Cluj, Oberliht Chișinău, Museios Heraklion Creta, Schnittraum Koeln, B5 Târgu Mureș, Franklin Furnace New York, Arrow Factory Beijing, IBID Projects London, P74Centre Lubljana, Centrul de Introspection Vizual București, Stacion Pristina Kosovo, Nova Synagogue Zilina, Sandwich Bucharest, Uzina de Apă Suceava, La Galerie du Tableau Marseille etc. She participated in Documenta 15 and the art biennials in Istanbul, Venice, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Sydney, Lyon, Dublin, Iasi, Timisoara, and Jakarta.
He received the George Maciunas Award in 2004, the ECF Princess Margriet Award, Amsterdam 2012 (with Lia Perjovschi), and the Rosa Schapire Kunsthalle Hamburg Award in 2016. Dan Perjovschi is the laureate of the Gheorghe Ursu Human Rights Foundation 1999 and of the Civil Society Gala CERE Participation 2016. Since 2010 he has been doing the art project in the public space in Sibiu – The Horizontal Newspaper.
INDECIS is an independent space in Timisoara, Romania. A non-profit organization that includes an artist, an engineer, and a sociologist, which aims to promote and create dynamic relationships between art and artists/female artists//artistx by organizing exhibitions, stimulating artistic production, publications, or other cultural and educational events. Indecis space lives in symbiosis, sharing the same place with The Secret Garden Bookshop.
The SIT+READ Artbook Fair takes place from Thursday to Sunday, October 27th and 29th at the Corneliu Miklosi Transport Museum Timisoara. The project is part of the Timișoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture program and is funded by the Timișoara City Hall through the Timișoara Project Center.
