╳ Marina Abramović

╳ Marina Abramović, a New York-based Yugoslavian performance artist, is a pioneer of performance art, and began using her own body as the subject, object and medium of her work in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the ‘grandmother of performance art’. Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. ╳ Ms Abramović was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965-70, and she completed her post-graduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, SR Croatia in 1972. Between 1973 - 75, she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts at Novi Sad, while implementing her first solo performances, and in 1976, she left Yugoslavia and moved to Amsterdam.

╳ Works by the artist include: Artist Body: Performances (1969-1998), ‘Balkan Baroque’, Public Body: Installations and Objects (1965-2001) and The House with the Ocean View (2004). Last year, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, held a major retrospective and performance recreation of Abramović's work: ‘The Artist Is Present’ (March 14 to May 31, 2010), the biggest exhibition of performance art in Moma's history. During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed ‘The Artist is Present’, a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum's atrium, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. A support group for the ‘sitters’, ‘Sitting with Marina’ was established on Facebook, with the performance attracting celebrities such as Björk and James Franco. This performance retrospective traced Ms Abramović’s prolific career with approximately fifty works spanning over four decades of her early interventions and sound pieces, video works, installations, photographs, solo performances and collaborative performances made with Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen).

╳ Abramović’s latest creation is an edible one, which the artist explains in the simple statement: “You receive this dessert in front of you and it’s kind of a mystery.” Food is Abramović’s medium, where the palate is treated to a medley of dark chocolate ice cream smothered in meringue, accompanied by gold leaf and a dash of spun sugar with chocolate cookie crumbs flambéed with rum; and coupled with this artistic treat is an Mp3 player talk by her and the eccentric recipe booklet, ‘Spirit Cooking’ designed by Abramović with Jacob Samuels. And, like any exhibition, the dessert is only available for a limited time. In fact, it is part of a collaborative artist series Park Avenue Winter has created in conjunction with the nonprofit public arts organisation Creative Time. A very fitting collaborative partner, this esoteric restaurant transforms its décor seasonally, becoming Park Avenue Winter in November, and Park Avenue Spring after that.

╳ Images (top to bottom)

‘Marina Abramović Portrait with Flowers’ 
Black-and-white gelatin silver print
Marco Anelli

Marina Abramović, ‘The Artist is Present’
Installation view with Portrait with Flowers (2009)
Museum of Modern Art
2010

Abramović performing in ‘The Artist is Present’
Museum of Modern Art
2010

Objects from the performance piece ‘Rhythm 0’, 1974
Marina Abramović
‘The Artist is Present’
Museum of Modern Art
2010

Park Avenue Winter and Creative Time Consulting put on an ‘Art-Food Installation’
Park Avenue Winter
New York
2010

Marina Abramović’s and her Volcano Flambé
Park Avenue Winter
New York
2010