Artist Body - Public Body
Marina Abramović is one of the
most important perfor-mance artists and one of the most radical and engaged
researchers of her own body as a source and medium of artistic expression. She
was born in 1946 in Belgrade, to parents who were important military and
political figures in former socialist Yugoslavia. Between 1965 and 1970 she
attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, and in 1972 completed her
graduate studies at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts.
While still a student she made
numerous installations with sound and gave her first, provocative, public
performances. The period between 1973 and 1975 saw her most radical
performances: experiments with pain, physical distaste and disgust, usually at
the limits of her physical and psychological capacities. In Amsterdam, in 1975,
she met a German artist, Ulay, and thus began twelve years of living and
working together. Their first joint performance, Relation Work, treated
relations of duality (woman/man, sound/silence, inertia/energy); later on they drew inspiration from other
cultures. They adopted a nomadic life-style, travelling widely in Europe, the great
deserts of the world - the Great Western Desert in Australia, the Sahara, the
Thar and the Gobi - and living in China, Portugal and Thailand. With their
perfor-mance of The Lovers/The Great Wall in 1988 they parted company. The
period between 1989-1998 is marked by Marina’s solo performances, the most
expressive being Cleaning the Mirror I, II, III, The Onion, and Cleaning the
House which, like Delusional and Balkan Baroque are directly linked to the war
in former Yugoslavia. For Balkan Baroque, which she performed at the Venice ‘97
biennial, she was awarded The Golden Lion for best artist. Marina Abramović has
always believed that her public and the flow of energy between the highly
concentrated artist and her audience are extremely important. In 1992 she
dedicated Transitory Objects, which incorporated crystals collected while
living in crystal mines in Brazil, to her audience. Her final theatre piece,
Biography, is entirely dedicated to her public, and gives a detailed exposition
of her past life; it is an open-ended work which is continually updated with
new events in the artist’s life.
Artist Body - Public Body by Marina Abramović
Moderna galerija, 15.10. –
30.11.98
Tue.-Sat.: 10.00 –
18.00
Sunday: 10.00 – 13.00
Cankarjev dom, 15.10. – 30.11.98
Tue.-Sat.: 10.00 –
19.00
Sunday: 10.00 – 14.00
Organised by
Moderna galerija & Cankarjev dom
In collaboration
with Kunstmuseum Bern
With the support of
the Ministry of Culture, Slovenia
