Dan Perjovschi

Sibiu, Rumanía - (1961)

            Dan Perjovschi is a Romanian artist and political activist who began to stand out on the international scene for his cartoons and comic illustrations sprouting on various surfaces: walls, windows, ceilings, doors and floors all over the world. His training took place during the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, in the editorial office of 22 magazine, a leading publication of the Romanian resistance, founded by the Social Dialogue Group, of which he was a member. Even though he studied painting for twelve years, for his satire he prefers markers or chalk and to express himself through simple lines. His sources of inspiration are articles or news reports. The result: works that condense a humorous yet bitter look at reality. 

            This post-communist and post-modernist artist was born the same year the Berlin Wall was built and, in his own words, it happened "on the wrong side". Art and humor have always been his tools to escape oppression, a way to shape freedom from a lucid and ironic worldview. His works seek to denounce current political, economic and social problems. His acute observation of everyday life and its imaginary challenges his viewers. Drawings, performances, site-specific installations, visual and textual interventions, and word games make up a conceptual body of work that mixes banal themes with political, social and cultural content.

            Since 1990, the artist has contributed hundreds of witty and incisive observations published in literary and political magazines, such as Contrapunct and 22. As illustrator of the latter, and from his role as an art director, Perjovschi left his mark by making of drawing not just a means of information and political commentary, but an original format in which rapid improvisation allows for the elaboration of complex ideas without moralizing. When it comes to making an exhibition, he travels to the place beforehand to settle in for a few days, talk to the people, get to know their culture and find out what is going on. Then, he draws on everything he saw or heard. This creator works from what he calls "indoor graffiti". The concept of the temporary runs through his work: walls are the surface he uses, but he draws on them with permanent markers. The aim is that only time and willpower can erase it.