Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovićis a Yugoslav performance artist based in New York. Her work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Active for over three decades, Abramović has been described as the "grandmother of performance art." She pioneered a new notion of identity by bringing in the participation of observers, focusing on "confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body."...
NationalitySerbian
ProfessionPerformance Artist
Date of Birth30 November 1946
CountrySerbia
I really don't like art where you need to know so much theory to understand. If the theory is removed, it doesn't do anything. That means that this work is an illustration of theory, and I don't believe in the power of the work itself.
I believe the artist has an obligation to society.
Immaterial art is the strongest because there's no obstacle; there's just energy, and I believe in energy.
I believe so much in the power of performance I don't want to convince people. I want them to experience it and come away convinced on their own.
I believe that life is shorter; that is why we have to make experience longer.
I believe stories are very important to all performances. The life story of the performer shapes their work, and the life stories of the audience alter how they receive the work, what they read into the performer.
Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.
The big problem of our modern society is that we feel that we are separated from the nature. But it's just the opposite. We are interrelated and our DNA is the same. And only when human beings understand that, the nature will not be obstacle.
In theater, blood is ketchup; in performance, everything's real.
People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of.
One of the most wonderful things for me is to watch somebody else perform, where I am the audience - I love this more than ever.
Once you live in New York, you can't live anywhere else. Living in Paris is like going in slow motion. It's so bourgeois. I get so bored.
If you do performance and music, it's not performance as music.
I think 21st century should be art without objects.