Lia Perjovschi

Lia Perjovschi


b. 1961, Sibiu, Romania
Lives and works in Sibiu and Bucharest

Lia Perjovschi is the founder and coordinator of CAA CAA (Contemporary Art Archive and Centre for Art Analysis) an organic work-in-progress project (under different names since 1985) and KM (Knowledge Museum), an interdisciplinary research project from 1999-today. Her activity can be summarised as a journey from her physical body to the universal body of knowledge and was shown in more than 700 exhibitions, lectures, workshops around the world, while her artistic practice comprises various media, from performance to assemblage, from drawing and text to site-specific installations of objects, facts, diagrams, mind maps and timelines. From her earliest days mounting performances and exhibitions in her apartment, in the university or throughout the city, to her recent plans for the Knowledge Museum, Lia Perjovschi has been concerned with producing opportunities for intellectual exchange.

Among other venues, she has exhibited at the Muzeum Susch, Switzerland (2020); Kunsthaus Hamburg and Museum der Moderne Salzburg (both 2016); MUSAC, León, Spain (2015); Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, USA, and Bienal de São Paulo (both 2014); MACBA, Barcelona, and Künstlerhaus Vienna (2011); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, and Jamaica Center, New York (all 2010); mumok, Vienna and the Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, South Korea (2009); Sydney Biennale and Jumex Foundation, Mexico City, (2008); Tate Modern, London, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, and Centre Pompidou, Paris (all 2007); Royal College of Art, London (2006); Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany, and Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana (both 2005).

Lia Perjovschi, "Collection of masks", 2020, installation of sanitary masks, textile masks, safety visors, from »2020. Key Words«, an exhibition at Spike Berlin in collaboration with Ivan Gallery, 4–26 September, photo credits: Philippe Gerlach
« 2 of 92 »

Studies:

1987-1993 – National Academy of Arts, Bucharest

 
Solo Exhibitions: 

2022 – Colours. A Deconstructed Painting (Ivan Gallery, Bucharest)
2020 – »2020. Key Words« (Ivan Gallery at Spike Berlin)
2019 – Knowledge Museum – kit (tranzit.ro/București, part of the project “Upon Us All Equally. tranzit statements for the future”, an event curated collectively by tranzit.org network and organised in Bucharest); Knowledge Museum – kit (World Problems) (Július Koller Society, Bratislava, Slovenia)
2018 – Spațiul telescopic al cunoașterii / The Telescopic Knowledge Space (Sala de lectură a Bibliotecii ASTRA, Sibiu, Romania); KM-kit 1999-today (Muzeul Național Cotroceni/ Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest)
2017 – Sense. Survival Strategies in an Indiferent Context (White Cuib, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
2016 – Timeline cu martori / Timeline with Winesses (Ivan Gallery, Bucharest)
2015 – Knowledge Museum Kit (Total Museum, Seoul; MUSAC, León) I Have No Time for Colour (Christine König Gallery, Vienna – with Dan Perjovschi); L’Art et l’art (Michel Rein, Paris – with Dan Perjovschi) 
2014 – Knowledge Museum Kit (Gandy Gallery, Bratislava; Rupert Gallery, Vilnius)
2013 – Knowledge Museum Kit (Tranzit Display, Prague); Lia & Dan Perjovschi (Gro Gallery Art School, Jakobstad, Finland); From the Emptiness of our Universe to the Emptiness of Our Pockets (Stacion Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, Kosovo – with Dan Perjovschi)
2012 – Solo for Lia and Dan Perjovschi (IFA Gallery, Berlin and Stuttgart)
2011 – PiNG (Nantes, France); Magma Gallery (Sf. Gheorghe, Romania – with Dan Perjovschi); Club Electroputere (Craiova, Romania – with Dan Perjovschi); Lia&Dan Perjovschi Performance” (Gallery 47 Parasite, Lublijana)
2010 – Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castello (Castello, Spain – with Dan Perjovschi); Dada Legacy/Anti Art (Cabaret  Voltaire, Zurich)
2009 – Museum of Knowledge (Műcsarnok-Dorottya Gallery, Budapest); B5 studio (Târgu Mures, Romania)
2008 – Lia Perjovschi: Performances 1987-2007 (Wilkinson Gallery, London)
2007 – States of Mind. Mid-career retrospective of the work of Lia and Dan Perjovschi (Nasher Museum at Duke University, U.S.); Lia PERJOVSCHI / PERJOVSCHI Dan (Christine Koenig Galerie, Wien)
2006 – Chronology (Yujiro Gallery, London); Timeline (Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria)
2004 – Detective (in Art History from Modernism till Today) (The Station, Zilina, Slovakia); Lia Perjovschi (Innsbruck, Austria)
2003 – Lia Perjovschi & Dan Perjovschi. Endless Collection (Kunsthalle Göppingen, Germany)
2002 – Working Title (Quartier 21, Museumsquartier, Wien – with Dan Perjovschi); Sense (hARTA, Timișoara; Protokoll, Cluj-napoca, Romania)
2001 – Esprit de finesse + and Esprit de finesse (Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania)
2000 – Vid-Defragmentare / Void-Defragmentation (Atelier 35 Gallery, Bucharest); CAA in Tranzit (Tranzit Foundation, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
1999 – Sylvie Moreau Gallery (Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
1998 – Zoom diaPOZITIV (Atelier 35 Gallery, Bucharest); CAA (Eforie Gallery, Bucharest)
1997 – Hidden Drawings and Objects (Duke University of Arts, Durham, U.S.)
1996 – Like Everything Else, It Is More Complex than Firts Meets the Eye (Dieu Donne Gallery New York)
1994 – Fünf Fenster (Kunsthalle Wien, Wien)
1992 – Perjovschi/Perjovschi (Simeza Gallery, Bucharest)

Group exhibitions – selection:

2021-2022 – The Wonderfulness of Memory (Cukrarna Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia); The Equality of Possibility (Kunstverein Bielefeld, Germany); NEW ORDER. About art and order in uncertain times (Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, Germany)
2021 – Real Body (Ivan Gallery, Bucharest); What Makes Another World Possible? (Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia)
2020 – Up to and Including Limits: After Carolee Schneemann (Muzeum Susch, Switzerland)
2019 – Art Encounters Biennial, 3rd edition (Ishoo House, Timișoara, Romania); Condo New York (Ivan Gallery hosted by Simone Subal Gallery, New York); Rethinking the image of the world (MILL, La Louvière, Belgium, part of the Europalia Arts Festival Romania); Perspectives (BOZAR, Brussels, part of the Europalia Arts Festival Romania); The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100 (Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow)
2018 – A l’heure du dessin, 6e temps – trace (Château de Servières, Marseille, France); People Get Ready (Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA); A Measure of Humanity (Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, USA)
2017 – Collection Collective. Template for a Future Model of Representation (tranzit.sk, Bratislava) 
2016 – Kunst-Musik-Tanz (Museum der Moderne, Salzburg)
2014 – Rauschenberg: Collecting and Connecting (Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, U.S.)
2013 – Vom Zaudern (Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart)
2012 – Adaption, steirischer herbst (Graz, Austria); Atlas critique (Parc Saint Léger, Centre d’art contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux, France)
2011 – Beziehungsarbeit. Kunst und Institution (Künstlerhaus, Vienna)
2010 – Gender Check. Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe (Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw)
2009 – Gender Check (MUMOK, Wien);10 years of rotor (Rotor, Graz); Performing the East (Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg); Transmission Interrupted (Modern Art Oxford, Oxford); Artworks That Ideas Can Buy (Wilkinson Gallery, London); The Renaming Machine (Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb); DADA EAST? Contextes roumains du Dadaïsme (Musee des Beaux Arts, Tourcoing, France); CAA/CAA (subvision.art.festival.off, Hamburg); In the Shadow of the Monument (Gävle, Sweden); Women Artists’ Biennale (South Korea); Invisible Bodies, Conspicuous Mind (Lockman Gallery, Los Angeles); Les Femmes Parlent (Gandy Gallery Bratislava); Monument to Transformation (City Gallery, Prague)
2008 – Bildpolitiken (Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria); Dada East? Romanian Context of Dadaism (Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw); Have the Cake and Eat It Too. Institutionskritik als institutionalisierende Praxis (Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna); Revolutions. Forms that Turn (Sydney Biennial, Sydney); Mapping the Contemporary (Bucharest Biennial, Bucharest); The Map: Navigating the Present (Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden); Brave New World (La Coleccion Jumex, Mexico)
2007 – Brave New World (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis); Learn to Read (Tate Modern, London);
Auszeit. Kunst und Nachhaltigkeit (Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland); United Kingdom summer sushi (Gallery Yujiro, London); Le nuage Magellan (Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris) 
2006 – Magelanic Cloud (Space 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris); Tranzit Philosphy (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt); Every Day…(Kunstverein Salzburg, Austria); Dada East? The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire (Cabaret Voltaire – DaDa Haus, Zurich); ACADEMY. Learning from Art (MuHKA Museum van   Kunst, Antwerp); Eine Festausstellung. Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (DOK, Sankt Pölten, Austria); Check-in Europe (Europäisches Patentamt, Munich); Social Process (Periferic 7, Biennial, Iasi); Romania AGAIN FOR TOMORROW (Royal College of Art, London); Interrupted Histories (Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana)
2005 – Das neue Europa (Generali Foundation, Wien); On difference #1, Local contexts-Hybrid Spaces (Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart)
2004 – Who if not we…? Cordially invited (BAK, Utrecht); Publish and be Damned (CUBITT Gallery and Studios, London); Arteast 2000+ (Moderna Galerija, Lublijana)
2003 – Palpable Desequilibrium (Barat Art Gallery, Chicago); Prophetic Corners (First International Biennial Iasi, Romania); The Last European Show (Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrad)
2002 – Cetinje Biennial (Montenegro); Position (Rumänien, Forum A9 Transeuropa, Quartier 21, Museumsquartier, Wien); Global Fusion 2002 (Palais Porcia, Wien)
1996 – Experiment. Romanian experimental Art from ’60 until today (Gallery Etaj ¾ Gallery, Bucharest)
1994 – Turbinenhall (Copenhagen)
1993 – First annual exhibition of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (Dalles Hall, Bucharest)
1993-2002 – “Zona” International Festival of Performance Art (Timișoara, Romania); “Periferic” Contemporary Art Festival (Iași, Romania)

Performances (selection):

2003 – Official End (Zona Festival, Timișoara, Romania)
1999 – Blank (Triangle, Marseille, France; Ipswich Art College, United Kingdom)
1998 – Blank (Periferic Festival, Iași, Romania)
1997 – Blur (Tel Aviv); Approach (Ludwig Museum, Budapest)
1996 – I am Lia! (Spatia Nova 4th Biennial, St. Petersburg, Russia); Incomprehensible (Zona Festival, Timișoara, Romania); Searching, Selecting, Measuring, Height & Weight (St. Ana Lake Festival, Romania); Approach (Sf. Gheorghe, Romania); I Am Fighting for My Right to be Different (Art Museum, Timișoara, Romania) 
1992 – Nothing is Accidental (Vac, Hungary); Vertical (Nove Zamky Slovacia Karlo Vivary, Czech Republic); Prohibited Area to any Exterior Utterance (Art Camp, Costinesti, Romania)
1991 – Nameless State of Mind (Timișoara, Romania)
1990 – Instate of Nothing (Sibiu, Romania); Map of Impressions (Arta Gallery, Sibiu, Romania); Looking Back (Ankara)
1989 – Magic of Gesture/Laces (Art Academy, Bucharest); For My Becoming in Time (Art Academy, Bucharest); Hopeless Dialogue (Arta Gallery, Sibiu, Romania); Annulment (Oradea, Romania)
1988 – The Test of Sleep (Oradea, Romania)
1987 – Motion Picture (“Nicolae Grigorescu” Art Institute, Bucharest)

Stage Design (selection):

2006 – Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (The National Theatre in Bucharest); The Raconteur (Manila Cultural Center, Philippines) 
2004 – First Man by Camus (UNESCO, Romania)
2000 – Wit Margaret Edson (Teatrul Mic, Bucharest) 
1993 – The Seagull by A. P. Cehov (Teatrul Mic, Bucharest)

Curatorial projects (selection):

2013-2017 – Brainstorming 1-6 (Astra Sibiu Library, Sibiu, Romania)
2009 – Statement (Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest)
2005 – On Difference (Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart – co-curator)
2004 – Formats (Kunsthalle Wien; Bucharest)
2003 – Waiting Room (Theatre Art Institute, Amsterdam)
2002 – Short guide-Position Rumänien (Museumsquartier Wien, Vienna (with Susanne Neuburger and Dan Perjovschi); Sense (hARTa Gallery, Timisoara; Protokoll, Cluj; Balkon Art Review, Cluj 
2000 – Visual id/Defragmentation (Eforie Gallery, Bucharest)
1999 – By the Way (IASPIS, Stockholm)
1998 – diaPOZITIV (Atelier 35/Eforie Gallery, Bucharest)
1993 – International Experimental Art Camp (Costinești, Romania)
1991 – Modified Space (Caminul Artei Gallery, Bucharest)
1987-93 – Experimental studio (Academy of Arts, Bucharest)
1985 – Informal meetings with specialists from different fields (in Oradea apartment)

Lectures/Projects/Workshops/Teaching – selection:

2017 – Lecture on The Museum of Knowledge (Fabrica de pensule, Cluj-Napoca, Romania); “De la propriul corp la corpul cunoașterii” / “From One’s Own Body to the Body of Knowledge” (C.E.R.E.F.R.E.A., Bucharest); “Sens” (Călina Gallery, Timișoara, Romania); Lecture at Museum Meeet Museums (Muzeul Țăranului Român / Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest)
2016 – “Survival strategies – The Contemporary Art Archive and the Knowledge Museum, 1985-today” @Archives to Come (Tanzquartier, Wien); “Looking for Sense. Hidden and Lost Ideas” (The Latvian Center of Contemporary Art, Riga); “Trying to Figure Out. A Dialogue between a Nonconformist Artist and a Scholar. Nastasia Louveau meets Lia Perjovschi” (Corner College, Zürich); “Meeting Lia Perjovschi” @Interviuri deschise/Open Interviews (Astra Sibiu Library, Sibiu, Romania)
2015 – Participant in the Something You Should Know. Artistes et producteurs d’aujourhui Seminar (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris)
2013 – “Dan Perjovschi COMMON Lia Perjovschi SENSE” (Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina)
2012 – Artists’ Congress (dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel); “Sense” (SALT Center, Istanbul); Workhop held with Dan Perjovschi (Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre, London); Lecture at  Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Berlin)
2011 – Lecture at TULCA Festival (James Hardyman Library, Galway, Ireland); “Museum of Knowledge” (Club Electroputere, Craiova); Lecture at The Sighet Memorial Summer School (Sighet, Romania); “Dada legacy / Anti-art” (Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich)
2010 – Lecture @Dada South? Exploring Dada Legacies in South African Art 1960-the present (Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town); Workshop at Salzburg Summer Academy (Salzburg – with Dan Perjovschi)
2009 – “Shortness” (Tate Modern, London); Workshop at Salzburg Summer Academy (Salzburg – with Dan Perjovschi)
2008 – “Changements de régime, poursuite des pratiques?”, Théories et pratiques artistiques dans l’ex-Europe de l’Est (Jeu de Paume, Paris); Workshop at Salzburg Summer Academy (Salzburg – with Dan Perjovschi); Lecture at Nasher Museum of Art (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina)
2006 – “Contemporary Institutions Between Private and Public (C.I.M.A.M. Conference, Tate Modern London); Lecture at The Vincent  Stedelijk Museum  (Amsterdam)
2005 – “Dizzydent” (After the Happy Nineties Conefrence, Goethe Institute Bucharest – with Dan Perjovschi)
2003 – Artist talks at Columbia University; Northwestern University Department of Art Theory and Practice (Illinois, U.S.); Barat College; Lipa Gallery (Chicago); Art, Architecture and Design Institute (Kiel, Germany)
2002 –  Artist talk at The Architecture Institute (Bucharest)
2000 – Moderator with Dan Perjovschi  of the show “Everything in View”, producer Ruxandra Garofeanu, every Saturday 10am-1pm on TVR 1 (National TV Channel 1) on topics on contemporary Culture and Politics
1999 – Moderna Museet (Stockholm) guided tour in “After the Wall” exhibition for the Gotheborg Art Institute students; Talks at The Art Institute Bergen (Norway); Ipswich Art College (Great Britain); Norwich Art Institute (Great Britain); CIAC Bucharest ” working brunch “, TV Arte…; Conference for the Students in Art Management (Bucharest); 
1998 – Artist talks at The Brăila Art Museum (Romania) and Oradea Art Academy (Romania)
1997 – Visiting Professor at  The Art History Department of The Duke University of Art; Talks at Ludwig Museum Forum (Aachen), Brașov University (Brașov, Romania), Brăila Art Museum (Brăila, România), Art Academy Poznań (Poland) 

Artist In Residence/Fellowship:

2016 – Zurich University
2011 – Remake. Research on media art (Espace PiNG, Nantes, France)
2005 – Royal College of Art (London)
2002 – Kunstlerhaus (Worpswede Germany)
2001 – Mecklenburgisches Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow (Plüschow, Germany); “Claude Nicolas Ledoux” Institute (Arc-et-Senans, France)
1999 – Iaspis / Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts (Stockholm)
1997 – Artist in Residency / Visiting Professor at Duke University (Durham, NC)
1996 – “ArtsLink” Fellowship (New York)
1994 – “KulturKontakt” Fellowship (Christine König Gallery, Wien); “Nuova Borsa” Fellowship (Accademia di Brera, Milano)
1993 – Artist in residence  at Maastricht International Art Meeting; Artist in residence at Bovile Ernica (Italy)
1990 – Artist in residence at The International Festival of Young Artists (Ankara)

Awards:

2012 – “Princess Margriett Award” of The European Cultural Foundation 
1998 – SOROS Center for Contemporary art award for curating
1990 – U.A.P. award for young artist
1985 – Small graphic award Astra Library

Bibliography (selection):

Lia Perjovschi, Timelines, Concreta Ed., Spain, 2014
Lia Perjovschi (ed.), Lia from A-Z, 1961-Today, My World in 4D, Ed. Honterus, Sibiu, 2013
Angelica Nollert et. al., Solo for Lia Perjovschi: Knowledge Museum Kit, Moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2012
David Crowley, Dan and Lia Perjovschi: Behind the Line, University of Plymouth Press, 2012 
Ovidiu Țichindeleanu, “Lia Perjovschi. Economy and Collection of Care in Transition”, Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry, Issue 28 (Autumn/Winter 2011), pp. 112-123 
Dan Perjovschi, Lia Perjovschi, The Cologne Crime, Argobooks, 2009
Lia Perjovschi, Sense 1999-2009, Onestar Press, Paris, 2008
Marius Babias & Sabine Hentsch (coord.), Lia Perjovschi. Contemporary Art Archive Center for Art Analysis 1985-2007, Ed. Idea, Cluj-Napoca, 2007
Kristine Stiles (ed.), States of Mind. Dan and Lia Perjovschi, Duke University Press Books, 2007
Lia Perjovschi (coord.), amaLia Perjovschi, Ed. Idea, Cluj-Napoca, 1996