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 ...
Marina Abramović | Artists | Lisson Gallery Artists Exhibitions Studio Shop News Fairs About Contact 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. Abramović 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, Henie Onstad, Sanvika, Norway (2017), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany (2018), Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun (2019), and Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia (2019). The artist's operatic project '7 Deaths of Maria Callas' debuted at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany in 2020, and toured to Palais Garnier, Paris, France (2021); the Greek National Opera, Athens, Greece (2021); Deutsche Oper Berlin, Germany (2022); Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy (2022) and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain (2023), and will travel to the English National Opera, London, in 2023. In 2023, 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 ‘Akış / Flux’, Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (2020); ‘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. Recent, current and forthcoming projects Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (23 September 2023 - 1 January 2024) News Marina Abramovic CV Marina Abramovic Biography Marina Abramovic Press Pack Marina Abramović Institute Contact us Marina Abramović Gates and Portals 2022 Installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2022 Commissioned by Modern Art Oxford Photo: Thierry Bal Marina Abramović Selenite Portal 2022 Selenite, Steel, Aluminium, LED 297 x 179 x 68.5 cm 116 7/8 x 70 1/2 x 27 in Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith Marina Abramović Sleeping Under the Banyan Tree 2010/2022 Pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra 141.5 x 200 cm 55 3/4 x 78 3/4 in ed. of 3 + 2AP Marina Abramović Energy Hat (Eyes Open) 2021/2022 Pigment print on Hahn Photorag Baryta 153.7 x 91.4 x 7.6 cm 60 1/2 x 36 x 3 in ed. of 5 + 2 APs Marina Abramović 7 Deaths of Maria Callas 2021 Leah Hawkins (Desdemona) and Marina Abramović Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany Photo: Wilfried Hösl Marina Abramović Seven Deaths 2021 Film 1 hour, 50 seconds ed. of 5 + 2 APs Marina Abramović Seven Deaths 2021 Film 1 hour, 50 seconds ed. of 5 + 2 APs Marina Abramović Seven Deaths: The Mirror 2020/2021 Alabaster, custom light 120 x 101 x 12 cm 47 1/8 x 39 3/4 x 4 5/8 in ed. of 2 + 1 AP Marina Abramović The Lovers, Great Wall Walk with Ulay 1988/2010 Two-channel video (colour, no sound) 15:45 minutes 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 PerformanceThe Museum of Modern Art, New York3 monthsimage courtesy Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY Marina Abramović The Artist is Present 2010 PerformanceThe Museum of Modern Art, New York3 monthsimage courtesy Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY Marina Abramović The Artist is Present 2010 PerformanceThe Museum of Modern Art, New York3 monthsimage 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 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 Marina Abramović Dozing Consciousness (Body) - eyes open, 2019 Dye sublimation print aluminum Image size: 229.1 x 115.3 cm Image size: 90 1/8 x 45 3/8 in Marina Abramović Looking at the Mountains 2010 Colour pigment print 160 x 200 cm 63 x 78 3/4 in Museum Exhibitions Marina Abramović at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK Exhibitions Marina Abramović 28 April – 22 July 2023 Marina Abramović: Seven Deaths 14 September – 17 October 2021 Marina Abramović: Seven Deaths 14 September – 30 October 2021 Marina Abramović – White Space 17 September – 1 November 2014 Marina Abramović 13 October – 13 November 2010 London | New York | Los Angeles | Shanghai | Beijing Subscribe Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Wechat Soundcloud Lisson Gallery London Limited | Incorporated in England & Wales | Company Number 1691363 | 52-54 Bell Street, London, NW1 5DA Privacy Policy | MSA Statement We use cookies on our website to improve your experience. 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