Marina Abramović
Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade
during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance as a visual
art form. She created some of the most important early works in this practice,
including Rhythm 0 (1974), in which she offered herself as an
object of experimentation for the audience, as well as Rhythm 5 (1974),
where she lay in the centre of a burning five-point star to the point of losing
consciousness. These performances married concept with physicality, endurance
with empathy, complicity with loss of control, passivity with danger. They
pushed the boundaries of self-discovery, both of herself and her audience. They
also marked her first engagements with time, stillness, energy, pain, and the
resulting heightened consciousness generated by long durational performance.
The body has always been both her subject and
medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits in works that ritualise the
simple actions of everyday life, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger
in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. From 1975-88,
Abramović and the German artist Ulay performed together, dealing with relations
of duality. She returned to solo performances in 1989 and for The
Artist Is Present (2010) she sat motionless for at least eight hours
per day over three months, engaged in silent eye-contact with hundreds of
strangers one by one.
Marina was one of the first performance
artists to become formally accepted by the institutional museum world with
major solo shows taking place throughout Europe and the US over a period of
more than 25 years. Her first European retrospective ‘The Cleaner’ was
presented at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden in 2017, followed by
presentations at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, Denmark and
Henie Onstad, Sanvika, Norway (2017), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
(2018) and Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun (2019). In 2020, Abramović will be the first female artist to host a major solo
exhibition in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Select
solo exhibitions include ‘Two Hearts’, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria (2018); ‘The Kitchen', Zuecca Project Space, Venice, Italy
(2017); ‘As One’, NEON + MAI, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (2017); ‘The Space
In Between Marina Abramović and Brazil’, SXSW, Austin, Texas, USA (2016);
‘Terra Comunal – Marina Abramović + MAI’, SESC, Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil
(2015); ‘512 Hours’, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2014); ‘Holding
Emptiness’, Contemporary Art Center, Malaga, Spain (2014); ‘‘The Life and Death
of Marina Abramović’ (with Robert Wilson), Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY,
USA (2013); ‘Balkan Stories’, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2012); ‘The
Abramović Method’, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2012); ‘The
Artist Is Present’, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia
(2011); ‘The Artist is Present’, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
(2010); and ‘Seven Easy Pieces’ at the
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA (2005). Abramović has participated in many
large-scale international exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (1976, 1997)
and Documenta VI, VII and IX, Kassel, Germany (1977, 1982 and 1992). She has
also established the MAI (Marina Abramović Institute) to support the future
exploration and promotion of performance art.
Marina Abramović
Looking at the Mountains,
2010
Colour pigment print
160 x 200 cm
63 x 78 3/4 in
Marina Abramović
The Force,
2019
Alabaster, LED lighting component inside
49.5 x 53.5 x 7.8 cm
19 3/8 x 21 x 3 in
Marina Abramović
Dozing Consciousness (Body),
2016
Dye sublimation print on aluminium
229.1 x 115.3 cm
90 1/4 x 45 3/8 in
Marina Abramović
In The Sea of Silence,
2013
Fine art pigment print
160 x 213 cm
63 x 83 7/8 in
Marina Abramović
The Artist is Present,
2010
Performance
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
3 months
image courtesy Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY
Marina Abramović
The Artist is Present,
2010
Performance
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
3 months
image courtesy Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY
Marina Abramović
The Artist is Present,
2010
Performance
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
3 months
image courtesy Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY
Marina Abramović
Portrait with Firewood
,
2010
Black & white photographic print
136 x 136 cm
53 1/2 x 53 1/2 in
Marina Abramović
The Kitchen VI From the Series: The Kitchen, Homage to Saint Therese,
2009
Black & White Pigment print on cotton paper
136 x 126 cm
53 1/2 x 49 7/8 in
Marina Abramović
The Kitchen IV,
2009
From the Series: The Kitchen, Homage to Saint Therese
Colour Chromogenic Print
136 x 126 cm
53 1/2 x 49 7/8 in
Marina Abramović
Still life with Onions,
2009
Colour photographic print
104 x 104 cm
41 x 41 in
Marina Abramović
Still life with Potatoes,
2008
Color photographic print
104 x 104 x 6.2 cm
40 x 40 x 2 1/2 in
Marina Abramović
Portrait with Potatoes,
2008
Colour Chromogenic print
120 x 120 cm
47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in
Marina Abramović
Portrait with Onions,
2008
Colour Chromogenic print
120 x 120 cm
47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in
Marina Abramović
Me and Me,
2008
Sliver gelatin print
101.6 x 101.6 cm
40 x 40 in
+ 17.8 cm / 7 in white border
Marina Abramović
7 Easy Pieces: Entering the Other Side,
2005
C-Print
226.1 x 153 cm
89 x 60 1/4 in
Marina Abramović
Balkan Baroque I,
1997
C-Print
124 x 216 cm
48 7/8 x 85 in
Marina Abramović
White Dragon,
1989
Oxidized Copper, Obsidiana
250 x 52.3 x 46 cm
98 3/8 x 20 5/8 x 18 in
Marina Abramović
Art must be beautiful/Artist must be beautiful,
1975
Black and white video with sound
23 minutes 36 seconds
Marina Abramović
Rhythm 0,
1974
Table with 72 objects and slide projector with slides of performance
Marina Abramović
Rhythm 0,
1974
Table with 72 objects and slide projector with slides of performance
Marina Abramović
Rhythm 4,
1974
2 Photographic prints and text
166 x 250 x 165.5 cm
65 3/8 x 98 3/8 x 65 1/4 in
Marina Abramović
Rhythm 10,
1973
21 Silver gelatin prints and text
122.5 x 898 cm
48 1/4 x 353 1/2 in
