Profile
Marina Abramović: The Artist Who Made Presence Her Medium
Serbian-born pioneer of performance art
Born in Belgrade to parents who were both partisan war heroes, Marina Abramović studied at the city's Academy of Fine Arts. In the early 1970s she began creating performances that used her own body as the material.
In Rhythm 0 (1974) she laid out 72 objects, including a loaded gun, and let visitors do whatever they wanted to her for six hours. From 1976 to 1988 she worked with German artist Ulay, ending their partnership by walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle.
Her MoMA show The Artist Is Present drew huge crowds in 2010. In 2023 London's Royal Academy of Arts gave her its main galleries, a solo honour no woman had received there before.
Career highlights
- 1974Rhythm 0: audience given control over her
- 1976Partnership with Ulay: begins 12 years of joint works
- 1988The Lovers: Great Wall of China walk
- 1997Balkan Baroque: wins the Golden Lion at Venice
- 2010The Artist Is Present: MoMA retrospective
- 2023Royal Academy: landmark solo show in London
Did you know?She founded an institute dedicated to performance art and developed the 'Abramović Method', exercises to help people slow down and focus.
