Serbian native Vessna Perunovich works in a variety of media, including painting and performance. In her installation piece, The Day We Stopped Talking to Each Other, Perunovich explores the borders that define space, place, and culture. As she says, “My artistic practice continuously explores the theme of boundaries and limitations enacted through building structures that imply entrapment and engage with the notion of mobility.”
The Day We Stopped Talking to Each Other, which was commissioned for the embassy building, addresses this issue of borders and boundaries head-on. Perunovich’s installation quite literally defies the compartmentalization of boundaries, as it is located in a stairway between two floors. Her piece also references the story of the Biblical Tower of Babel, in which humanity’s efforts to overcome culture and language barriers were foiled. Her work “reinterprets this ancient structure associated with power, prosperity and separation to address the current issues of communication and conflict. Simultaneously The Day We Stopped Talking to Each Other resonates the ideal of the Biblical Babylon the notion of global community and the creation of today’s modern multi-ethnic societies . . . where people who come from all over the world live together and communicate in the same language,” she says.
Perunovich earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Art degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Belgrade. Since then, she has participated in solo and group exhibitions across the globe, including several international biennials. She is the recipient of many residencies and grants, including the 2005 Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts award.
