This online exhibition reflects how Covid-19 has changed our lives
Image by George Rosu
23 April 2020
Text:
Paula Erizanu
An international group of artists have banded together to create a constantly evolving online exhibition on life in the Covid-19 pandemic.
After kicking off in March with a single artist at the White Cuib gallery in Cluj, Romania, Virus Diary now involves 14 creators from across the world.
Some creators, including Dan Perjovschi, George Rosu, Ana Kun, or Aldo Giannotti, post multiple works each day, while others participate more intermittently. They alternate urgent political comments with scribbles mocking digital culture (“the bread pic is the new dick pic,” says one drawing) and snapshots of their lives under quarantine.
“I had to do a solo show at White Cuib and I kept modifying it, based on how public space was being restricted, until we ended up online,” the exhibition’s original artist, Dan Perjovschi, told The Calvert Journal. Perjovschi and his fellow artists are all working without pay to create work for the White Cuib — a pun on London’s famous White Cube gallery in Whitechapel. (“Cuib” in Romanian means “nest” instead.)
“After a week, I asked the illustrator George Rosu to join, to add colour and diversity. Then we invited Alina Andrei of the White Cuib and Ana Kun from [the experimental platform] Balamuc in Timisoara. Now we’re a group of 14, but we want to also expand the list and invite artists from Indonesia, Hong Kong, China. and the United States, to get more opinions and experiences,” he says.
You can follow the project here.
Image: Florin Arhire
Image: Gloria Luca
Image: Magdalena Pelmus
Image: Elena Vladareanu, guest artist, reflecting on what the lockdown means for parents with young children like herself
Image: Aldo Giannatti
This drawing references the fact that Romania signed treaties with Germany, UK and other countries to provide fruit pickers despite the pandemic, which divided opinions on the left and the right. Image: George Rosu
Image: Dan Perjovschi
