Lia & Dan Perjovschi - Ongoing, a review by Alma-Brita Cristea, 2nd year History and Theory of Art

Lia and Dan Perjovschi are very well known in the Romanian art community for their various types of art but only a few people have the chance to go beyond the art, to get to the process and their imaginative world. The exhibition Ongoing (în desfășurare)  that took place at Tranzit Foundation in Cluj-Napoca from the 29th of March until the 14th of May of the current year was just that, a chance to get familiar with the creative process and spaces of Lia and Dan Perjovschi. 

The exhibit also called an open workshop, showcases very different pieces from projects like Sense (Sens), Museum of Knowledge (Muzeul cunoașterii), different drawings by Dan Perjovschi, booklets that sum up some of his pandemic works, t-shirts, umbrellas, random inspiration pieces, books by the artists or with their contribution or just some of the ones that inspire them and even parts of their tv show that they had years ago. 

Just from the start, the show, open workshop, or exhibition doesn’t look like your average exhibition. Because it’s not an average one. But don’t get fooled by the apparent simplicity of the display of art, books, shelves, and clothing racks. This kind of display needs the involvement of the viewer, a viewer that loses its passive role and has to become a researcher, to be curious, dig through the papers, search for something meaningful to his experience, and to discover an inside world of two extremely passionate and creative people.

The works are not chosen, nicely displayed on the walls, or actively happening but as a participant, you get to skim through books, exhibition booklets, self-made collections of newspaper clippings with the specific drawings over them, racks that have xerox-copied books, and handwritten notes and seemingly useless ore non-art-related objects on them. It is as if you entered somebody’s personal mind. And it is at the same time freeing and your task to find meaning, to understand what lies behind some witty, almost comic-like drawings. Coming from a background of limited knowledge, spending a significant chunk of time in that room with all the art-infused objects I could learn about motivates the artists, what preoccupies them, which issues they criticize, and how they regard politics. 

Everything around felt full of meaning, and even if as a mere visitor you could never get to the level of closeness to the artists that you can understand everything you get close enough to feel their powerful presence, their message as artists, their indirect message about art, it’s role, politics, community and the sheer volume of information that Lia and Dan Perjovschi hold and try to embody in their works of art. 

Ongoing (în desfășurare) is not a controversial or eye-pleasing type of exhibition. It is an experience you have to be willing to take an active role in, to be curious, open-minded, willing to take a seat at a desk and skim through the notes, ideas, and pages and understand things beyond the image as drawing, performance and their image as artists. It’s about the human connection and understanding of the mind of two great artists.