Performing Power | Lia Perjovschi, Anamaria Pravicencu

Performing Power
Lia Perjovschi, Anamaria Pravicencu

13–14.06.2025
Salonul de proiecte
Palatul Universul, Corp B
23–25 Ion Brezoianu, Bucharest

The Institute of the Present opens “performance spaces,” an unstable platform for hybrid performance practices, potentially affiliated with the visual, sound, theatre, movement, poetry, experiential or community action areas. The performative space is temporary, always different, somewhere else, and can be occupied in various ways, specific to each type of action and encounter with the audience. “performance spaces” wants to allocate space, create context, revealing historical references, and exhibit and support the production of transmedia, self-organised forms of performative action on the local artistic scene.

In the frame of “performance spaces,” the “Performing Power” event proposes a two-stroke encounter and experience, inspired by the publication “Lia Perjovschi. Knowledge and Context” (Parkour 5, P+4 Publications / The Institute of the Present, ed. I–2017, ed. II–2025), in two different forms of performance/activation of the archive that brings together artists Lia Perjovschi and Anamaria Pravicencu. “Performing Power” refers to the power to influence, legitimise or challenge reality through actions, behaviours or performance, and to the fact that power is not only held, but is permanently generated through the conscious or programmatic repetition of certain actions.

SO THAT WE COULD SOMEHOW MOVE FORWARD. Anamaria Pravicencu
13.06.2025, 19:00
sound performance followed by the launch of the second edition of “Lia Perjovschi. Knowledge and Context”

Anamaria Pravicencu’s sound performance is inspired by the encounter with the publication “Knowledge and Context,” being closely related to the way the visual and the word can trigger sound experiences and events. The imprint of the word, as perceived by the artist, reverberates from the inside of an object-book through the voice and inner strength of she who utters it. “Reading the interview with Lia Perjovschi from the Parkour series, my attention was drawn to the intensities of the verb and, sometimes, the hesitations of self-assertion. I isolated them and looked at them as such, detached from the context and letting the contradictions manifest themselves. The waves of will, perseverance, trust, pride, doubt or weariness, in pure form and freed from systematic associations, are revealed by the persistence of a single, solitary voice that resonates in multiple possibilities and haunts memory and perception.”

In her artistic work, Anamaria Pravicencu is preoccupied with site-specific sound interventions and field recording. She studied drawing and sculpture, and since 2009 has promoted sound and musical experiment in events and contexts such as Sâmbăta sonoră or SEMI SILENT.

WHAT? WHY? WHOM FOR? WHAT FOR? Lia Perjovschi
14.06.2025, 15:00–19:00
1985–today, Contemporary Art Archive /Center for Art Analysis vocally activated

An encounter, an artistic-philosophical-life consultation, a performance, a reflection together, an action, an experience in the archive with Lia Perjovschi. “The Contemporary Art Archive covers a void. When I started researching and collecting the materials, there was no institution of contemporary art in Romania, in Bucharest, where I lived at the time. The archive is not invented, it is not a conceptual work, but it was born organically, out of a necessity. It is private because the lack of space and the conditions do not allow it to be an open archive. It is functioning because of me; I am the one who is activating it. (…) Analysis—going from accumulation to sorting, organisation, analysis, from edification to the deconstruction of the Romanian artistic system, to the general context. It was the time when I became aware that I know enough to be able to analyse. I wanted to make comments, and I made comments. I went from fascination to reality. This is why the Contemporary Art Archive became the Center for Art Analysis.”

In her practice of working with information, accumulation and archiving of materials and knowledge, Lia Perjovschi is searching for possible forms for a visual transfer of knowledge, and for enabling an open space for reflection, encounter and dialogue, which is part of the potential exposure forms of CAA/CAA—Contemporary Art Archive/Center for Art Analysis and of KM—Knowledge Museum.

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“performance spaces” is a programme by Ștefania Ferchedău. Its past manifestations include the reconstruction of the performance “Genesis,” by Miriam Răducanu (1970/2019), the performative installation “Lucky Dust,” with Vera Mantero and Mădălina Dan (2023), “Orientation Exercises,” by Mihai Iepure-Górski and Răzvan Anton (2024), sound interventions by Anamaria Pravicencu (2022) and Maria Balabaș (2024), and the COLLEGIUM series of laboratories and residences focusing on performative practices developed since 2019.

The 2nd edition, 2025, of “Lia Perjovschi. Knowledge and Context” (Parkour 5, P+4 Publications / The Institute of the Present, editors Alina Șerban, Ștefania Ferchedău, design Ioana Petcu) is published with support from the 2024 P+4 Publications’ readers.

The event is organised by the Institute of the Present in the frame of the project “In the archives. (Yet) Invisible Histories,” cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. Partner: Salonul de proiecte. Visuals: Sebastian Pren, inspired by the identity of the Parkour series.

The project does not necessarily represent the standpoint of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN cannot be held liable for the content of the project or the manner in which the outcomes of the project may be used. These shall devolve entirely on the beneficiary of the financing.