Dan and Lia Perjovschi

F O Kristine Stiles preface: biography as history The Perjovschis were born in 1961 in Sibiu, situated Dan and Lia Perjovschi’s art is of singular sig- in the center of Romania in the Fagaras Mountains, nificance in the development of experimental art in the highest peaks of the Southern Carpathians; Sibiu’s S 1 Dan and Lia Perjovschi Romania since the late 1980s. The Perjovschis’ work archeological remains date from the Late Stone Age. matured under the double pressures of Romanian [Fig. 1] Dan and Lia met as children while attending socialism and Soviet communism. In response to these special schools for the training of artists in Sibiu, : influences, both artists forged original and challenging and became romantically linked as teenagers. [Fig. 2] forms of visual expression in drawing, performance, During their studies, these art schools were closed E installation, and conceptual practices, as well as in the by the former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and the Per- analysis and use of mass media (especially television jovschis graduated in 1980 from a Pedagogical School. and newspapers). Both artists have also been heralded Dan entered the Academy of Art in Iasi, a city on the D internationally, included in many biennials through- eastern border of Romania; his studies were interrupted T out the world, and featured in dozens of international by nine months of military service. Lia remained in group and solo exhibitions. The current exhibition, Sibiu even after their marriage in 1983. The couple was however, is the first retrospective of their work, one only able to live together after 1985, when Dan finished that follows ten years after Duke University hosted their his studies and was appointed to a museum position in N A first two-person show in the United States in 1997. Oradea, on the Hungarian border of Romania. [Fig. 3] That year the Perjovschis served as artists in residence There, Lia obtained a post designing stage sets for I at Duke: Dan taught experimental drawing, and Lia the theater. taught performance, installation, and video. [Figs. In 1987, Lia was finally admitted to the Academy T 354 – 356] Knowledge of the Perjovschi’s lives in pre- of Art in the capital city of Bucharest, after six years and post-Revolutionary Romania is critical to under- of being informed that she had annually failed her standing their art. entrance exams. Such manipulative measures arose S M x stiles 1 Cluj, and Brasov. [Figs. 4, 25 – 26] Traveling from Oradea and Bucharest, Dan and Lia met in Sibiu to be with their families over Christmas and to participate in the street protests. By 21 Decem- ber, the Revolution had reached Bucharest and fighting had broken out in Sibiu. Encountering the Fig. 1, above Fig. 2, right couple Liviana Dan (an View of Sibiu. Dan and Lia Perjovschi, art class, complained about the appropriation of workers’ wages art historian) and Mir- 1979, Pedagogic Lyceum, Sibiu. by the managers, showing records of hours worked and cea Stanescu (an artist) balls produced for which they had not been paid. Lia during the protests, the from the widespread corruption that reflected the recalled how the director addressed the crowd gathered Perjovschis were fortu- repression and scarcity that the Romanians increasingly behind her: Fig. 4 nate in being able to remain in their friends’ apartment View of Timisoara. experienced in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, “Really!” he said, “Who agrees with Amalia?” No for several days to escape the violence, as civilians were which only became more severe and punishing. Roma- one spoke. Silence. From that time on, I thought being shot in the streets. Meanwhile, Ceausescu and his The tape of the event showed the couple as arrogant, nians were not permitted to travel; typewriters were my ears grew because I listened so hard to their wife Elena fled Bucharest, were apprehended, accused defiant, and unrepentant to the very end. Far from illegal; books were restricted; and knowledge and infor- silence; I couldn’t believe that I could hear so much of crimes against the state, and then shot by a firing spectacular, the circumstances of the dictators’ execu- mation from the West were tightly controlled. Shortages silence. Then the director said: “You know what, squad on Christmas Day 1989. [Fig. 228] The perfunc- tion were stunning in their banality: the couple lay of basic goods and services (food, water, and electricity), you are an instigator; and if I can, I will put you out tory execution, which was later televised, was met with dead in a dilapidated, inner courtyard of an army base as well as limited access to professional advancement, [of the factory and future employment] with an I.” cheering and weeping crowds throughout Romania. schoolhouse in the small town of Targoviste, eighty resulted in a barter economy that encouraged favoritism Workers received the mark of “I” when they were kilometers northwest of Bucharest. This scene stood and nepotism in exchange for gifts, promotions, and deemed undisciplined troublemakers, dangerous, in marked contrast to the fact that they had exercised other advantages. This system meant that although Lia and unworthy of hire. “In this case,” I replied, absolute control over Romania for over twenty years, may have successfully passed her exams, she might also “I quit.” 2 during which time they bankrupted the state, in large have been excluded in favor of those from whom the measure due to having built the ostentatious Palace of examiners could gain advantages. But their refusal to Lia stormed out of the room. Later the other women the People (Palatul Poporului), one of the three largest permit Lia to enter an art academy was also an example explained their lack of support with a variety of excuses: buildings in the world. [Fig. 139] For its construction, of how, in the former Romanian communist system, “Look, Lia’, you know I have three kids.” “It’s not the first Ceausescu razed large sections of the middle of Bucha- officials controlled antiauthoritarian behavior, of which time something like this has happened.” “I can’t be like rest, including villas, schools, monasteries, and other Lia was perceived to be guilty as early as high school. you.” “You have a family to support you.” Some women municipal buildings in a city once described as the The result was that between 1980 and 1985, the Roma- told her that they also worked as prostitutes and feared “Paris of the East.” These offenses (and many others) nian authorities assigned Lia to various forms of manual that if they confronted the director, he would report them led to the Revolution, later discovered to have not been labor and service jobs: painting ornamental Christmas to the police. “Somehow everyone had a reason not to sup- a popular uprising, but rather one orchestrated from tree balls; fabricating suitcases in a leather factory; and port me,” Lia remembered. After this event, Lia’s parents within the party and those closest to the Ceausescus. collecting electrical bills for the state. accused her of quitting her job because she was “lazy.” 3 Early in 1990, Lia was approached to take a position in A grave example of Lia’s resistance to the corrupt The Revolution began on 16 December 1989 in Timisoara, the new Youth Department in the Ministry of Culture system occurred in 1980, when she led a protest by her on the borders of the former Yugoslavia and Hungary, Fig. 3 View of Oradea. as a result of her leadership role in the Art Academy fellow employees at the Christmas ball factory. She and by 20 December had spread to the cities of Sibiu, 2 stiles states of mind 3 4 5 Network (called Ate- the Romanian dissidents who founded Group for Social for Art Analysis (caa /caa),” which she began in 1997. lier 35),4 Lia declined Dialogue (to which Dan still belongs).6 [Figs. 55 – 56] [Fig. 161] From its inception, caa /caa has operated the offer and suggested Dan continues to this day to work for Revista 22, using as an analytical and critical platform devoted to the Dan (along with Carmen drawings to respond to and analyze specific social, scrutiny of the construction of history and aesthetic Popescu, a young art his- cultural, and political topics covered by the newspa- and social formations. Lia situates caa /caa in a global torian) in her place. Dan per. For Revista 22, Dan also wrote about contemporary context that also analyzes the current evolution from and Carmen were hired.5 art exhibitions and authored columns on body and labor- to knowledge-based societies and economies. performance art. Over time, his commentaries grew As an outgrowth of caa /caa, she has begun to make In the decades following from analyses of local topics into discussions of the drawings and small-scale models for what she calls the the Revolution, the Per- relationship between Romanian and international art, Knowledge Museum, which will have seven departments jovschis rose to promi- and he began to write short pieces on art and aesthet- (see page 92). [Figs. 169, 226] nence both in Romania ics for various magazines. In 1998, at the urging of and abroad. Dan pio- Together in 1992, the Perjovschis created their first Gabriela Adamesteanu, a noted Romanian novelist and neered large-scale, site- pair of newspapers, which functioned as catalogues for former editor-in-chief of Revista 22, Dan contributed specific drawing instal- their work. Lia expanded this practice under the rubric a biweekly column to Revista 22. Originally lengthy and lations with literally of caa /caa, which has produced numerous newspapers discursive, these commentaries have become shorter thousands of figures, on specific themes.

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