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centrul Bucureøtiului timp de o oræ, scurtæ, dar intensæ, ræmînînd, de atunci,
apropiafli.
În aceste condiflii, pentru mine conteazæ mai mult sæ-mi expun perspectiva asupra
legæturilor din lumea artei, pe care le-am observat øi træit între MoMA øi Bucureøti.
Luîndu-mæ dupæ ce am væzut în lumea lui Perjovschi de la Bucureøti, nu pot sæ nu
observ ruptura accentuatæ dintre clædirile vechi, præfuite, aflate în ruinæ în care træieøte
el øi zidurile albe, imaculate de la MoMA. Deosebirea nu e una neobiønuitæ, dar a
ieøit în evidenflæ pentru mine cînd i-am væzut instalaflia acolo. Observaflia mea n-a
fost declanøatæ de vina tipic occidentalæ a lui „a avea“ øi „a nu avea“. E o experienflæ
ce survine din ce în ce mai frecvent datoritæ micøorærii lumii, în care douæ locuri sau
idei foarte diferite sînt alæturate în absenfla unui protocol formal sau a abilitæflii de
prudentæ adaptare la un nou context. Opera sa abordeazæ færæ probleme acea rupturæ
socialæ ciudatæ øi adesea frustrantæ, care arareori îøi gæseøte un echilibru.
Figurile øi simbolurile fruste ale lui Dan Perjovschi, ce-øi gæsesc un termen de
comparaflie în graffiti, sînt menite, prin simplitatea lor, sæ vorbeascæ un limbaj îmbibat
de generic. El næscoceøte limbajul contemporan al culturii globale. Opera sa
îl flipæ în gura mare: coduri de bare, logouri ale unor produse de lux, graffiti, Coca-
Cola, McDonalds etc. Fiecare dintre aceste obiecte/simboluri traverseazæ færæ
efort culturile, pæstrîndu-øi mesajul intact. E un limbaj care e inventat pentru cei mulfli
de cætre acei cîfliva aflafli la guvernare, care pun laolaltæ vastul conglomerat de locuri
regionale øi de oameni de pe cuprinsul planetei, rezumîndu-i în cîteva propoziflii
sau imagini. Perjovschi foloseøte acest limbaj global pentru a descrie experienflele
individuale ale culturii locale, fie cæ o face prin umor, frustrare, injustiflie sau autoconøtientizare.
Precum douæ linii de înaltæ tensiune, el alæturæ eterogenul stræzii cu politica instituflionalæ
øi le combinæ, lipsit de inhibiflii, cu limbajele globale ale guvernæmîntului øi ale
culturilor acestuia. Ar fi prea simplist sæ spunem cæ vorbeøte pe limba tuturor, însæ
el reuøeøte sæ propunæ un dialog al diplomafliei care îi înfæfliøeazæ pe tofli, în aceeaøi
mæsuræ goi øi în aceeaøi mæsuræ îndreptæflifli sæ fie buni øi ræi. Opera dobîndeøte o
dimensiune extrem de ingenioasæ atunci cînd el suprapune øi interconecteazæ
complexe legæturi între stradæ øi instituflie, între publicul global øi intimitatea a ceea
ce e local. Ca atîflia alfli artiøti români înaintea lui, el oferæ un nou mod de examinare
a condifliei umane.
I met Dan by accident, a couple of years ago around Christmas time
in his home city of Bucharest, Romania. I had traveled there for the
holidays. I was sent by some friends to meet him. Our meeting was
by chance since his never ending lineup of international artist’s residencies
made it that he was rarely ever home. We sat in his downtown
Bucharest offices and talked for a short but intense hour and
we have been colleagues ever since.
Under these circumstances, it makes more sense for me to tell my
perspective of the art world connections I have observed and experienced
between MoMA and Bucharest. Going by what I have seen in
Dan’s world in Bucharest, I cannot help but notice the vast rupture
between the dusty, old, condemnable buildings that he lives in and
the pristine white walls of MoMA. The disparity is not an unusual one
but was punctuated for me when I saw his installation there.
My observation is not ignited by a typically Western guilt of have
and have not. It is an experience that happens more and more
frequently because of a shrinking world where two very different
places or ideas are paired together without a formal protocol or the
ability to cautiously re-adjust to a new context. His work comfortably
embraces that strange and often frustrating social rupture that can
rarely find a balance.
Dan’s starkly graffiti-esque figures and symbols are designed, in
their simplicity, to speak a language that is swaddled in the generic.
He coins the contemporary language of global culture. His work
screams it: bar codes, luxury logos, graffiti, Coca-Cola, McDonalds,
etc. Each of these objects/symbols effortlessly crosses cultures carrying
their messages intact. It is a language that is made up for many
by a governmental few who piece together the vast patchwork of
regional places and peoples across the planet, summing them up
in a few sentences or images. Dan uses this global language to
describe the individual experiences of local culture whether it is
through humor, frustration, injustice or self-awareness.
Like two exposed electrical lines, he brings together the mixture of
street with institutional politics and blithely combines them with the
global languages of government and its cultures. It is too simplistic
to say he speaks a language for everyone but he does manage to propose
a dialogue of diplomacy that renders everyone equally naked
and equally entitled to being wrong and right. The work acquires
a dimension beyond the clever when he overlaps and interconnects
complex links between the streets and the institution, the global public
and the intimacy of what is local. Like so many Romanian artists
before him, he offers a new way to examine the human condition.
A novice art lover and fan of Dan and his work, once innocently compared
it to the simple line drawings of Henri Matisse. I dismissed her
idea as I thought the connection between the two was incidental.
Later I kept returning to that comment.
In light of this seemingly simplistic comparison, it becomes interesting
that Dan’s simple sketches have come to grace the walls of
MoMA. An institution that was founded on the works of European
artists like Matisse, Picasso and other Modernists whose desires were
to create the avant-garde, the subversive and the radical, the new
MoMA building is a testament of Modernism freezing within the new
walls and glass the very tenets that defined art in the twentieth century.
The brick whitewashed walls in the studios and galleries of
nineteen sixties Soho are the original aesthetic impulse from which
the MoMA building took its cue. Its gargantuan proportions are the
aspects that carry it into the twenty-first century.
MoMA’s project space is probably one of the most important
contemporary spaces in the Western world because it embodies one
very influential history of Modernism that becomes the context for
any new work shown there. The new building commands a dialogue,
a niche that has been forcibly carved out by the institution’s desire
to make closure on the Modernist canon. MoMA goes to parodic
lengths to produce a space that is “themed“ by Modernism.
If that is the case, what relevance does a forty-foot wall of graffiti by
Dan Perjovschi in a bastion of Modernism have to works by Matisse,
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