Marina Abramović pioneered performance as a visual art form, exploring the limits of the human body and mind. Her works, often ritualistic in nature, delve into themes of pain, exhaustion, and self-transcendence in pursuit of emotional and spiritual transformation. A significant period of collaboration with Ulay (1975–1988) focused on the dynamics of duality, followed by her continued success in solo endeavors. Abramović founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) as a platform for immaterial and long durational work, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
The child of Communist war-hero parents under Tito's regime in postwar Yugoslavia, Marina Abramović was raised with a relentless work ethic. Even as she was beginning to build an international artistic career, she lived at home under her mother's abusive control, strictly obeying a 10 p.m. curfew. But nothing could quell her insatiable curiosity, her desire to connect with people, or her distinctly Balkan sense of humor -- all of which informs her art and her life. Marina's story, by turns moving, epic, and dryly funny, is a vivid and powerful rendering of the unparalleled life of an extraordinary artist --
Marina Abramovic was a pioneer in the use of performance art as a visual art form. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring the physical and mental limits of her being, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in the quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. This volume documents Abramovic's Balkan series of video installations and performances created in the period from 1997 to 2005. The works confront us with the gaps between hope and total destruction, with heroism, idealistic passion, human warmth, and almost unbearable static situations. In her latest work, Balkan Erotic Epic, Abramovic creates new, surprising perspectives on archaic rituals that used erotic powers to influence fate and fortune. These powerful images talk to us about the disavowal of ancient practices, and about something buried deep in our consciousness.
Die Schriftensammlung versammelt handschriftliche und maschinengeschriebene Notizen, Tagebucheinträge, Gedichte, Traumberichte, Reisebeschreibunge, Briefe, Anweisungen für Performances, Erzählungen, Konzepte, Ideen und Sammlungen von Dokumenten aus dem unerschöpflichen Archiv Marina Abramović’s und erlaubt so unerwartete und tiefe Einblicke in das Schaffen einer Künstlerin, die vor allem für ihre radikalen Performances bekannt ist und im Laufe einer über 50 Jahre umspannenden Karriere mit ihrer immateriellen Kunst ein breites Publikum erreicht.
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 catalogue provides a unique insight into the artist’s working method and reflections. It is devoted to more than 50 years of drawings, sketches, thoughts, dreams and ideas produced in Abramović’s hand, and demonstrates the artist’s methodological approach. The book thus provides valuable insight into the processes that provide further background knowledge on her performance and communal works.
„This book should be seen as a diary filled with writings, poetry, cut-outs, collages, photographs, and drawings printed on the stationary papers which keep the memory of my journeys.“ Marina Abramović Never before published, this self-curated, intensely personal collection of travel notes and sketches by the world’s most revered performance artist offers readers a kind of iconography of Abramović’s daring and utterly original body of work. An artist’s notebooks are arguably the most authentic means of understanding her process, techniques, and impulses. And, for a performance artist, a rare, permanent record of how she develops her craft. Compiled over the course of four decades on stationery from various hotels, and other temporary residences, this collection of Marina Abramović’s original drawings, collages, poetry, writings, cut-outs, photographs and doodles offers glimpses of a brilliant mind in constant motion. Beautifully produced and packaged, it takes readers on a journey through Abramović’s thoughts—and traces the evolution of the most fruitful phase of her career. “My home was everywhere I went because my home was my own body.” With the archival material elegantly reproduced in their original size on high-quality paper, this collection offers Abramović’s enormous fanbase unprecedented access to her creative process.
Reflections on Mother Earth, Agriculture, and Nutrition
188 pages
7 hours of reading
A selection of artworks by international artists dealing with the food theme and all its implications. This volume accompanies the international traveling exhibition FOOD, that focuses on the preservation of Earth and food choices, as well as the effects of climate change, the poisoning of agricultural products, the food distribution gap, famine, and other related concerns.
As part of the 54th International Art Exhibition- la Biennale di Venezia, Personal Structures, presents 28 artists from 5 continents, representing 12 countries. The exhibition in 24 rooms, brings together an extraordinary combination of established artists next to artists whose oeuvre is less known. What they have in common is a dedication to the concepts Time - Space and Existence. The exhibition is curated by the Dutch curators Karlyn De Jongh and Sarah Gold. Personal Structures is held at Venice's prestigious Palazzo Bembo, by Rialto Bridge on Canal Grande. Each artist in the exhibition presents recent artworks, either site-specific, especially made for this exhibition, or coming directly from the artist's studio. Each room in Palazzo Bembo is dedicated to one single artist. Their strong statements give each of the rooms a very specific atmosphere. The exhibition features a broad variety of artistic media, such as: videos, sculptures, paintings, photos, installations with light, wallpaper and performance. The exhibition 'Personal Structures' is part of an international art project. It was initiated in 2002 by the Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer, who noticed that even in the most distant corners of the world, there are artists working with Time - Space and Existence, thereby expressing themselves in a very personal way. This observation led to the idea of bringing several of these artists together in publications, exhibitions and symposia.
Die Publikation zur ersten Retrospektive von Marina Abramovic in Europa bietet einen umfassenden Überblick über ihr Werk der frühen Jahre bis heute: Film, Photographie, Malerei, Objekte, Installationen und Archivmaterial.
