Tag: Vessna Perunovich

Originally from the former Yugoslavia, Vessna Perunovich has lived and worked in Toronto, Canada since 1988. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, most recently at the XII Biennial of Cerveira in Portugal, Second Tirana Biennial in Albania and 8th Havana Biennial in Cuba. Her sculptural installation, video and performative work explores her personal experience of immigration and displacement in addressing the issues of borders, exile and longing. Tension, which is a constant in her work both formally and conceptually, is essential to maintain the balance between subjection and empowerment, vulnerability and resilience. Perunovich’s work reflects on the pressures and ironies found in the opposing but interconnected forces, where conscious meets unconscious, personal meets social and illusion meets reality. Her most recent performance project Transitory Places which traveled to England, Portugal, Italy and Cuba explores the notion of home and one’s sense of belonging, as well as the utopian dream of a perfect place and disillusion that lays in the pursuit of that ideal.

FADO is pleased to present Diaspora, a performance art event that examines the experiences of dispersed and exiled populations. The event will feature five performances followed by a public discussion. Diaspora presents artists from various cultures, now living in Canada, whose performances consider their ‘foreignness.’ Developed by Montréˆal curator Sonia Pelletier and touring with support from CALQ, Diaspora features performances modified from an initial event presented in 2003 at Galerie Clark in Montréal. A fifth project featuring local artist Vessna Perunovich will be included for this Toronto version of Diaspora.

ARTISTS
Kinga Araya
Constanza Camelo
Flutura & Besnik Haxhillari
Myriam Laplante
Vessna Perunovich

Sonia Pelletier writes in consideration of the project:

Performance art [is] surely the most immediately expressive way to depict survival, resistance and the accommodation of differences. This commingling, driven by the artists’ concerns with identity issues, leads us to consider how the precarious state of the artist in a foreign land reverberates on one’s own culture, as well as the status of the artist in general…
   
A major portion of the project is devoted to reflection, with a focus on the identity issues of cultural transformation, hybrid cultures, belonging and cultural transference. …We are also attempting to refashion and re-view the word ‘Diaspora.’ Performative acts convey cultural evidence, but to what extent can one assert one’s belongingness in a world so polarized between Western and non-Western culture? And in the art world, haven’t the concepts of globalization and internationalization gotten confused as well?

Presented in cooperation with Blank Slate with support from the Conseil des art et des lettres du Québec.