The Magic of the Gesture, Laces (Discrete Communications)
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- The Magic of the Gesture, Laces (Discrete Communications)
- Magia gestului, Legături (comunicări discrete)
- 1989
- video, b&w, sound
- 3min, 46sec
In Lia Perjovschi’s exceptional precognition, clairvoyance, or premonition – call it what you will – while still a student, she carried out one of her earliest performances, "Magic of Gestures? Laces," on November 6, 1989, just 49 days before the execution of the Ceaușescu and his wife. In this action, she instructed twelve fellow students to sit in a circle on folding chairs. She then began tying them together, stretching the rope back and forth across the middle of the circle of obedient fellow colleagues. Lia tied the rope to their wrists, ankles, and feet, completely restricting their movements such that each participant was linked to three other colleagues, all dependent on each other in the end. Some may have interpreted this action as negative, since she restricted the student’s actions. However, the act of tying people together is historically a symbolic action known as “handfasting.” This ancient tradition is also the origin of the popular phrase “tying the knot,” thereby symbolizing the union, commitment, and lasting bond among individuals. Thinking further of what this might mean regarding Ceaușescu, Lia once commented:
I will, all the time, be on the side of the weak one. Before the revolution, when I was thinking of the dictator, who was really stupid, I hated him. I wanted to kill him, and symbolically I think I killed him each day. But I learned something that’s a little bit more complex. We cannot accuse only the guy at the top. We all have a part.
Lia Perjovschi continues to invent a uniquely personal, visual, and textual dialogue, rethinking, recycling, and reconstructing ideas that enrich the scope and understanding of art in our time. K.S.
I will, all the time, be on the side of the weak one. Before the revolution, when I was thinking of the dictator, who was really stupid, I hated him. I wanted to kill him, and symbolically I think I killed him each day. But I learned something that’s a little bit more complex. We cannot accuse only the guy at the top. We all have a part.
Lia Perjovschi continues to invent a uniquely personal, visual, and textual dialogue, rethinking, recycling, and reconstructing ideas that enrich the scope and understanding of art in our time. K.S.