Marina Abramovic

A blog exploring the life and works of performance artist Marina Abramovic.

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Kaiserschnitt, Marina&Ulay, 1978, Vienna

This piece was performed for the International Performance Festival in Vienna, Austria. For the piece, Marina and Ulay stood beside each other, arms connected for most of the 38 minute-long performance. Each artist also held one end of a rope, connected behind them to a horse. Every movement of the horse was compounded through the rope and violently pulled either artist in opposing directions. During the piece each artist yelled a single prase; Marina shouted “I have nothing to say!” to which Ulay would add “Ask Anyone!”. The title Kaiserschnitt is the german term for a caesarean section, referring to the violent way the two artists are torn apart.

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Aaa-Aaa, Marina&Ulay, 1978, Liege, Belgium

Acting as a sort of continuation of Marina’s earlier work, Freeing the Voice, Aaa-Aaa focuses on the relationship between the two artists. The performance consists of Marina and Ulay standing in front of each other and producing continuous noise. In the beginning they move in unison, shouting, breathing, pausing at nearly at the same time, they are equals. As the piece continues, the tension rises between the two, their voices become louder and their faces geting closer and closer. By the end it has become a competition; who can be the loudest, who can shout the longest. 

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Balance Proof, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Geneva

An extra-large mirror was the only separation between the two artists in this piece. Standing nude on either side of the mirror, Marina and Ulay were not able to see one another; the only sense of each other was the continued balance of the mirror. After a time Marina felt that Ulay had stepped away and backed away herself. She was incorrect, Ulay continued to hold the mirror for a few additional moments until he also stepped away. The mirror fell but did not shatter.

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Breathing out, Breathing in, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Amsterdam

Comissioned by the Stedelijk gallery in Amsterdam, this piece was a counterpart to Breathing In, Breathing Out, performed earlier that year. Marina and Ulay put cigarette filters up their nostrils, knelt in front of each other, and locked their lips. To complete the set, Marina emptied her lungs and Ulay filled his. This continued back and forth, breathing only the air in their lungs, for several minutes until only carbon dioxide was being passed and the two sprang apart.

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Light/Dark, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Köln, Germany

For Light/Dark, Marina&Ulay wanted to show the escalation and reactionary nature of arguments. Sitting across from one another in a dimly lit room, they take turns slapping each other’s face. One artist hits and the other reacts, getting increasiningly faster and harder until one of them stops. This piece was performed originally in Köln, Germany in 1977, but was repeated a year later in Amsterdam for film.

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Relation in Time, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Bologna

For this piece Marina and Ulay wanted to explore connections and the changes over time. Their hair was tightly tied together and slowly became looser over the course of the performance. The entire piece lasted 17 hours, although 16 hours were spent alone and only in the last hour was an audience present. A photograph was take every hour to show the progression. 

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Relation in Movement, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Paris

After living out of their Citroen HY van for nearly two years, Marina and Ulay created a performance to signify the end of its chapter with the piece titled Relation in Movement. Created for the 10th Biennale de Paris at the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, the performance consisted of Ulay Driving the van around in a constant circle for an undetermined amount of time while Marina rode with him and kept track of time and the number of revolutions. She shared this knowledge with the audience by means of a megaphone. In total, the van drove for approximately 16 hours and made 2226 rounds. 

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Expansion in Space, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Kassel, Germany

For this performance two heavy but moveable columns were installed in the gallery space, identical to other permanent columns already in the building. Marina and Ulay stood back to back, nude, inbetween the two columns. They then repeatedly ran face first into the columns, shoving them with the force of their movement and the weight of their bodies alone. The idea was to move the columns until they hit the other permanent columns or until they did not move any longer. Ulay had to stop before this point, his body simply would not allow him to continue, but Marina continued alone for a time until she too stopped. 

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Breathing In/Breathing Out, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Student Cultural Center(SKC), Belgrade

The majority of the audience for this exhibit was outside of the gallery, listening to an audio broadcast of the performance. Marina and Ulay had taped small microphones to their throats and had put cigarette filters up their nostrils. The two artists knelt in front of each other and locked their lips. Ulay emptied his lungs and Marina filled hers. This continued back and forth, breathing only the air in their lungs, for several minutes until only carbon dioxide was being passed and the two sprang apart. 

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Interruption In Space, Marina&Ulay, 1977, Düsseldorf

An evolution of their first piece together, Relation in Space, this piece was identical except for the meter-and-a-half thick wall separating them. Both artist ran towards each other at increasing speeds, crashing into the wall and pressing as hard as they could against the concrete. 

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There Is A Criminal Touch To Art, Ulay(Abramović Filmed), 1976, Berlin

Just as Marina had one last solo performance before devoting her time to the combined Marina&Ulay, Ulay had one as well. The Neu Nationalgallerie had on  display the favorite painting of Adolf Hitler, titled, Der Arme Poet(The Poor Poet). The painting was famous, taught in schoolbooks, but it was very antithetical to the gallery’s devotion to modernism. Ulay thought the museum was missing an opportunity to move on, so he took the opportunity. The performance consisted of Ulay entering the gallery, encouraging the guard to leave the room and then simply stealing the painting. He then left the museum and drove until he escaped the authorities before driving to the home of a turkish family. He then placed the image on their wall and called the police to admit to his crime. 

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Freeing the Body, Marina Abramović, 1976, Kreuzberg, Berlin

This was the last solo piece Marina performed before being entrenched in performing with Ulay and the final piece of a 3-part cleaning rite of passage began to help Marina leave her childhood home. In the performance, Marina stood naked with a black cloth covering her face and danced with increasing intensity for about 6 hours until her body gave out in exhaustion.

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Talking about Similarity, Marina Abramović & Ulay, 1976, Berlin

The first of many that occurred yearly on November 30, their shared birthday. In this piece, Ulay spent several minutes with his mouth open while a recording of a dentist’s ‘sucking’ tool was played. He then took a needle and thread and moved it through his bottom lip and then his top lip before a knot, effectively silencing him. Marina, sitting beside him, then prompted the audience to ask questions. She put on her deepest voice and responded for him.

A video of the performance is available online, I simply found myself very uncomfortable watching it. That video can be found here

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Role Exchange, Marina Abramović, 1975, Amsterdam

The opening for an exhibition of photos from Marina’s earlier performances was the setting for Role Exchange. Rather than attending the exhibition herself, she exchanged roles with a prostitute from the Red light district. The prostitute, named Suze, had been working for 10 years, the same amount of time Marina had been working full-time as an artist. For the hour-long exhibition, Suze took the role of Artist while Abramovic took the role of Whore.

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Freeing the Memory, Marina Abramović, 1975, Tübingen, Germany

This was the second of a 3-part rite of passage created to help ease the passage from her childhood home. For this piece, Abramović Spoke every word she knew in her native tongue until she could not come up with any more after 90 minutes.

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Freeing the Voice, Marina Abramović, 1975, Student Cultural Center (KC) in Belgrade 

At the age of 29, Marina faced the fact that she was moving out of her childhood home and sought to enact a 3-part rite of passage, so to speak. For the first, she dressed in all black and lay with her head leaning off a mattress and screamed. The primal bellows continued until her voice simply gave out.

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Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful, Marina Abramović, 1975, Copenhagan

Holding a comb in either hand while seated naked on the floor, Abramovic visciously combs through her hair while repeating the phrase “Art must be beautigul, Artist must be beautiful”.