The title International Artist of the Dan Perjovschi exhibition in the ICA Gallery in Sofia is of course not a mere attempt to partake in the advancement of the globalist trend by transliterating the long English word in the Cyrillic font – Интернешънъл артист. We do solemnly declare that this is indeed the first presentation of a non-Bulgarian internationally famous artist in our exhibition space, which is still in the process of getting started. Our invitation to him is neither a coincidence nor a surprise. We have been trying to squeeze our show into his very intense exhibition schedule for quite a long time. We do this because his works are, among many other things, a reflection of our common past, our confused present and our hard-to-stick-to faith in a better future.
We have always been only 294 km apart (according to Google maps) – at the time when “they” were watching “our” TV programs in the 1980ies, as well as at the time when we were watching “theirs” in December 1989. Ever since then for exactly 20 years now we together have been going through and overcoming the socialist, the post-totalitarian, the eastern-European, and the Balkan traumas on our way to the dreamed of European, and why not – international, identity. The drawings of Dan Perjovschi are the easily identifiable found objects of this shared history. Entered into the exhibition space by an artist-foreigner though a neighbor these drawings are tracing the trajectories of change, those changes that we have been constructing actively all along.
Vector. ICA-Sofia: Motives, Analyses, Critique is a project by the Institute of Contemporary Art - Sofia. The project is realised with the financial support of the National Fund Culture, Critique Programme
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