London’s Royal Academy of Arts is hosting a major Marina Abromovic show. Abromovic will be performing different works during the run of the exhibition, the RA stated, ‘no two visits will be the same.’
The exhibition presents key moments from Abramović’s career through sculpture, video, installation and performance. Works such as The Artist is Present will be strikingly re-staged through archive footage while others will be reperformed by the next generation of performance artists, trained in the Marina Abramović method.
The exhibition will open with Public Participation, featuring two works in which Abramovic famously engaged directly with her audience: from the radical physical interaction of Rhythm 0, 1975 to the quiet stillness of The Artist is Present, 2010. Held 45 years apart, the two works bring together Abromovic’s development of her practice. The exhibition will be featuring works, such as Rhythm 5, 1974 (London, Lisson Gallery) and The Hero, 2001.
Body Limits brings together Abramovic’s key early performances, which will be presented through video and photographs. Some focus on the use of her body and her physical stamina, while others represent a search for transformative release. RA also presents Abramovic’s work with Ulay, an intense exploration of human relations, including Imponderabilia, 1977, and this performance will be reperformed.
The next section in the exhibition is Absence of the Body which focuses on the break-up of Abramovic and Ulay’s relationship and features The Lovers, The Great Wall Walk, 1988, a ritualised separation where the artists walked for 90 days across the Great Wall of China from opposite ends, meeting briefly before going their separate ways.
Performances of Imponderabilia, Nude with Skeleton, Luminosity and The House with the Ocean View will also be presented throughout the exhibition.
