Drawing is celebration of freedom: Romanian artist

Dan Perjovschi relishes freedom through satirical drawings at his solo exhibition


Artist Dan Perjovschi never imagined that he would be doing what he does now and sometimes still thinks that it is all completely unbelievable.

“It is a celebration of freedom. This is kind of like negating art school. It is totally against what I learned. My teachers would go ...,” he said, pretending to faint, during an interview with The Korea Herald last week at Total Museum in Pyeongchang-dong, central Seoul.

The Romanian artist was trained to paint rigid communist realism paintings from age 10. It was only after his country was freed from a long dictatorship that he could change his style of art; first to conceptual graphic art and later to satirical black and white drawings which were showcased in public for the first time in 1998. His unique cartoon-style works were well-received internationally and he has held many solo exhibitions in renowned museums such as Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate Modern in London.

“I value freedom of expression and don’t see art only in terms of auction and art market,” he said.

Perjovschi’s latest exhibition, titled “The News After the News,” is underway at Total Museum. Taking current affairs issues from newspapers as the main source of his inspiration, the artist filled the walls with drawings that mock, explain and criticize the stories. He arrived in Seoul about a week prior to the opening of the show to check out the news stories here and draw them onto the museum’s walls.

“Nobody reads yesterday’s newspaper. I am curious, will what is the news of today still be news of tomorrow? What constitutes the news? I’m like the editor of news here (in this exhibition), but who’s doing it in the rest of the world?” he said. 

Dan Perjovschi sits in front of a wall filled with his drawings at Total Museum in Pyeongchang-dong, central Seoul. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)

About half of the drawings found in the museum are pertinent to events and issues of the moment in Korea; the rest are from his previous exhibitions. He read English-language newspapers published in Korea and looked through the images in several Korean-language newspapers for the show. One wall, in fact, was covered with English-language newspapers including The Korea Herald, commented upon with scribbles and drawings by the artist.

Most visitors could easily relate to Perjovschi’s drawings and messages. Along with drawings about iPhone which he crossed out and wrote “iAm,” explaining that one does not exist anymore if one does not have one, his experiences in Korea were also spotted in drawings of numerous church top crosses and samgyeobsal, or traditional pork barbeque, sizzling on grills.

Similar things are happening all over the world these days, meaning that ideas from Korea could be used in future exhibitions too, he said, gesturing to his drawings about education. One of them showed a book that can also be viewed as a gun, with the message “Educate with care” beside it. Another showed the word “Tuition” with an arrow pointing upwards.

“Education is essential in any country. It is a topic of discussion everywhere I go. If you see it as business, it is a problem. I think it should be free for everybody. Education has to make people think, not obey,” said Perjovschi.

His past, or his country’s past to be exact, still seems to haunt him whenever he holds shows overseas.

“If you are an artist from a country which is not mainstream, people think you are representing your country. But I represent myself. They (artists in his country) won’t even recognize these (my drawings). I’m kind of alone in my country with this,” said the artist.

“Everything you experience, good or bad, will make who you are now. My experiences didn’t help me, but maybe yes, because it taught me how to fight and to say no,” said the artist.

“In our days, it is easy to be bad. What I want is to be strong and tough, in a conceptual sense. Not cynical but humorous and understanding.”

The exhibition runs through Dec. 4 at Total Museum in Pyeongchang-dong, central Seoul. For more information, call (02) 379-3994 or visit www.totalmuseum.org.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)