The three-step approach research, archiving and self-historicisation characterises the type of visual archaeology proposed by Lia Perjovschi (1961, Sibiu). For the artist, (self)knowledge is a means of navigating a home-grown social and cultural universe that needs (new) points of reference. Her works rewrites, in some degree, these landmarks. While they may seem subjective, they highlight areas of collective interest and draw, through text and images, missing historical links. By means of performative actions and interventions, Lia Perjovschi invites us to examine, always according to the context, terms, concepts, ideas, phenomena, elaborating counter-histories, chronologies, dictionaries, and collections from a personal perspective.
Lia Perjovschi’s interview brings back to the foreground key moments of her activity from the 1990s, such as the transformation of her studio in an educational alternative for those interested in learning about the connections established between art and society or the founding of the Contemporary Art Archive. Along the same lines of selecting the witnesses of time, the interview becomes a critical commentary on the specific processes of transition, highlighting the urgency to understand the parameters of one’s own context, to fill in gaps that had not yet been filled on the Romanian artistic map.
Interview: Alina Șerban
Artworks & archive: © Lia Perjovschi
Bucharest, 2023
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Camera & video editing: Dan Iordache
Subtitles: Diana Bularca, Ștefania Ferchedău
Music: Lucian Mețianu, Pythagoreis, 1970
Parkour & IP visual identity: Radu Manelici
Parkour Video visuals: Sebastian Pren
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Film produced in the frame of the projects “Uncensored Act” and “Performing 89”.
The project is part of the national cultural programme “Timișoara—European Capital of Culture in the year 2023” and is funded by the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Center for Projects. Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
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.