Andrei Pandele & Dan Perjovschi: Witnessing pre /post Revolution in Romania

The tenth exhibition at Art Space Södertörn presents yet another show addressing urgent issues evoked by the present geo-political situation in Europe.
In the exhibition curated by the British curator and scholar Uschi Klein, two bodies of work are in dialogue with each other and the visitor. One consists of photographs by Andre Pandele (b. 1945), which he took during the 1970s and 1980s in Romania, and the other of wall drawings by Dan Perjovschi (b. 1961). Mixed with graffiti, this key artist of the global post-1989 art scene draws directly on the walls of art museums and galleries across the world. At Södertörn, he will create a site-specific work directly in the gallery.
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a violent key moment in the country’s history that brought its people democracy after 42 years of communist rule, which resonated with the situation in the Post-soviet Europe as a whole. The 1980s had been particularly harsh in Romania: a severe austerity programme was implemented by Nicolae Ceauşescu (head of state 1967-1989) to pay off foreign debt as fast as possible. As a result there was a drastic decline of living standards. It was also a time of destruction, especially in Bucharest, where whole neighbourhoods and areas were bulldozed to build the second largest government building in the world, ironically called the ‘House of the People’. Thus, the population suffered a major social crisis and unrests were increasingly mobilised across the country, triggering nation-wide protests in December of 1989, which culminated in the arrest and execution of Ceauşescu and his wife Elena.

In Witnessing pre/post Revolution in Romania, the two Romanian artists, Andrei Pandele and Dan Perjovschi, reflect on what this exhibition proposes as a pre/post juncture at that moment, by creating a dialogue that aims at engaging the audience both emotionally and critically through wit and humour. Pandele’s photographs and Perjovschi’s drawings should however, not primarily be seen as a political testimony and commentary of then and now, the past and present. Instead, by bringing Pandele and Perjovschi together, this exhibition intends to expose the audience not only to nuances of Romania’s recent history, but also to contemporary issues that are inextricably linked to the past.

An architect with a keen eye for photography, Pandele took most of his photographs to record the country’s changes during the 1970s and 1980s. His photographs are poignant reminders of what everyday life looked like for the majority of Romanians during that time: queuing was a daily necessity to buy basic food items like bread, cooking oil, eggs, flour, cheese and meat; doing ‘patriotic work’ like clearing snow-covered streets was expected; the weekly ration of petrol for private cars meant catching overcrowded trams and busses; and constructions of apartment blocks and large avenues were seen in cities and across the country. In capturing these different glimpses of life, Pandele created an impressive body of work that was fraught with danger: during communism, there was a penalty of six years of imprisonment for taking pictures of that nature.

Similarly critical of the regime was Perjovschi during the 1980s. A prominent member of Atelier 35 Oradea, a network of spaces that were dedicated to experimental art and organised weekly exhibitions as an act of dissidence, Perjovschi has become famous for his site-specific drawings. Mixed with graffiti, he draws directly on the walls of art museums and galleries across the world, which gives his work an ephemeral nature. They contain layers of meanings and express a view of the world with political and contemporary commentaries.

The exhibition is organised with support from the board of the Critical and Cultural Theory research area (Södertörn University).

Bios:
Uschi Klein is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art and Media at the University of Brighton, UK, and has previously been a Visiting Research Fellow in Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University. Klein is also active as a photographer and exhibition curator.

Andrei Pandele (b. 1945 in Romania) is a retired architect who developed an interest in photography in his adult life. This enabled him to secretly document everyday life in Romania in the 1970s and 1980s. His first major exhibition was called Forbidden Photos and Personal Images (2007) at the National Museum of Contemporary Art.

Dan Perjovschi (b. 1961 in Romania) made his breakthrough after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and now works internationally. His expression is humorous, subversive, textual and comic, often working with text and drawings directly in the exhibition space. Perjovschi exhibited in the seminal exhibition After the Wall (1999, Moderna Museet), and most recently participated in Documenta 15, 2022.