Art & Narrative - Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic (born 1946) has been working in the fields of performance and sculpture since the early 1970s. Much of her work is performance based and is inextricably linked with her own body and her own life experiences. She explores the limits of her own body in what are often physically and mentally grueling (and sometimes life threatening) performances in an attempt to reach a heightened state of awareness.

In 1998, Abramovic staged a performance biography at the Teatre Rialto in Valencia Spain. The work involved the restaging of past performances, whereby Abramovic explored the narrative of her artistic practice to date, as part of a larger autobiographical story that she performs with a deadpan brilliance. Biography (the title is telling of the narrative connotations) was the first time Abramovic had performed in a theatre, a situation she has previously avoided. Abramovic explained this decision, saying that the theatre situation reflected the idea that she was acting the part of herself in the past.

Also in researching Abramovic I found a quote where she discusses the idea of aura in art (which we previously covered on this blog). I thought her description was quite apt.

"When you see a Rothko painting, you may not even know what colors it’s made of, but as you stand in front of it, it acts in a way that you cannot define rationally. A good work of art should make you turn around when you’re not looking at it, the same way as you can feel somebody looking at you when you’re sitting in a restaurant. You’re not sure, but you turn around and there is really somebody there. That energy is really beyond cultures . . . " - Marina Abramovic