Marina AbramoviÄ, âBalkan Baroqueâ, 1997 Marina AbramoviÄ is an artist with a very complex and beautiful story. she was born in Serbia, in a family of Yugoslav Partisans. in her work, she often explores topics of war, resistance and consciousness. âBalkan Baroqueâ is a unique work, which explores all three themes simultaneously. this performance is AbramoviÄâs answer to the war in Bosnia. she travelled back to Belgrade, and she interviewed her parents, as well as a man who catches rats. during this performance, which was first seen at Venice Biennale 1997, the artist sat on top of a mountain of cow bones, washing them, whilst three videos where streamed behind her back. two videos showed artistâs parents - one with her father with a pistol, her father showing his hands; the other with her mother with a cross in her hands, her mother covering her eyes. the third video portrayed the artist herself, first as a doctor, telling the story of the rat catcher, and then as a sexy dancer, dancing to traditional Balkan music. since the work was shown at Venice Biennale, which happens over summer, the Pavilion where the performance was happening was heating up very quickly. the smell of the rotting bones and the meat was spreading across the space, the worms were coming out from the bones. the performance is dealing with the concept of âcleaning the conscienceâ - accepting the past and moving on, in order to embrace the future. Marina states, that one can try to wash the blood off history, but one cannot wash away the shame of the war. #art #arthistory #venicebiennale1997 #venicebiennale #marinaabramovic #artcyclopaedia #war #postmodernart #performanceart #veniceitaly (at Venice Biennale, Giardini-Arsenale)