Feature section Booth S3
Lia Perjovschi Maps of Impressions 1988-1994 For our first Art Basel participation, we present a curated project focusing on the body-art performances of the Romanian artist Lia Perjovschi between 1988-1994. Lia Perjovschi's early performances speak about the balance between the individual's body and the social body, about alterity, the self and the others. A challenged human body subjected to censorship, control, and constraint during Communism, exorcising its layers and alter-egos in private actions without public in the intimacy of the artist's apartment during Communism, and later, after 1989, in street and festival happenings. For the performances, documented in video and photography, Lia Perjovschi more than often used her own body as backdrop or recipient for props made by herself, such as mixed-media costumes, human-size textile shadows or dolls. Thus, key pieces of the presentation are the "Costumes (Maps of Impressions)", mixed-media garments created by the artist since 1989 for her body dimensions, from textile materials, papier-mâché, books or newspapers cut-outs, vinyl, paper and cardboard with drawings. The "Costumes" are fusing sculpture with performance, and can be related to the artist's experience of working in theatre stage and costume design between 1985-1987, before studying at the Art Institute in Bucharest.
Lia Perjovschi (b. 1961, Sibiu, Romania) 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.
Among other venues, she has exhibited at Cukrarna Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2021-22); Tallinn Art Hall (2021); 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 (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), etc. Lia Perjovschi lives and works in Sibiu and Bucharest, Romania.