Innovation and interference - Marina Abramovic

Innovation and interference

"With eyes closed I see Happiness" - Marina Abramovic 

The artist I was given was Marina Abramovic, she was born in 1946 Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her parents held prominent positions in the communist government. Her father was a Marshall in the elite guard, her mother was an art historian, who oversaw historical monuments.  When her father left when Abramovic was 18, her mother took over the family, she was very strict and often violent, however she did support Abramovic's interest in Art.


Looking through some of her early work, its very disturbing, from what I have read she struggled with catatonia and schizophrenia. She took drugs in the intention to treat this. In the early 1970's she began creating performative art, initially creating sound installations, but quickly moved on to art that involved the body. In her early work it often places her in dangerous situations both mental and physical. She invited people to abuse her body with a variety of objects, such as a loaded gun (Rhythm 0, 1974)  I won't put any of her early work up, purely because it is very intense, but do click the link if you want to have a look at Rhythm 0.

I'm not the biggest fan of her work as its very potent. Which although I do think that art can be as powerful and disturbing as it wants, and its very much to the taste of the viewer, but for me its almost too much.

A year later in 1975 Abramovic created a piece called Thomas Lips which she basically cut her stomach with a razor, whipped her self and then laid of a block of ice.....  in an interview she suggested that the inspiration for her art comes from her experience growing up under Tito's communist dictatorship and  her relationship with her mother.  "All my work in Yugoslavia was very much about rebellion, not against just the family structure but the social structure and the structure of the art system there... My whole energy came from trying to overcome these kinds of limits." A photo of her work from Thomas Lips was put up in the Guggenheim Museum.


She was very constrained in terms of who could influence her art, due to being confined by the communist government, therefore everything was decided to what she could see and artists she could know about. In 1975 whilst in Amsterdam she met Frank Uwe Laysiepen aka Ulay, the next year she moved in with him, and for 12 years the colabed their art, works such as Imponderabilia (1977) where Abramovic and Ulay stood face to face, in a small corridor, forcing people to walk between them or slide between them if you will. As seen below.

After 12 years together as both collaborative artists and lovers. (scandalous) which is probably why they grew apart, with conflicts of interests and wanting to go down different creative paths. The last Collaborative piece they did together was called The Lovers which they both stood on two different sides of The Great Wall of China and walked for three months, and they met in the middle and said goodbye, they had little to no contact after their last project. 

Since 1997 she's won many awards for her work, and is considered to be 'the grandmother of performance art'