Apskritai visai nieko knyga, smagiai skaitosi, kaip kokie pletkai, tik vietomis akys vartosi, pvz kai ji kalbėjosi mintimis su Australijos aborigenais, ir norėjo pasikviesti į performansą kažkokį jogą, kuris neva išbūna kelias dienas po vandeniu, bet sakė, kad negalės dalyvauti performanse, kurį matys žmonės, nes tik dėl RELIGINIŲ priežasčių gali išbūti po vandeniu. Sure. Ze stelt me vragen over mijn eigen principes. Als ze zegt dat ze zit te trillen van angst als er turbulentie is in het vliegtuig, dan denk ik: geen last van. ‘Maar’, voegt ze eraan toe, ’als het om mijn werk gaat, gooi ik alle voorzichtigheid overboord.’ Op dat moment gaan de radertjes in mijn hersenen in het werk. About 10 years ago I saw the theater production “the life and death of Marina Abramovic”, a production by Bob Wilson, starring Marina Abramovic herself and Willem Dafoe. And that still is one of the most imaginative visual spectacles I have ever seen. So, this autobiography has been on my want-to-read list for a long time. Reading it has clarified quite a bit, especially her sheltered childhood in a “Red Bourgeois” environment in what is now Serbia (then Tito's Yugoslavia) and her eternal obsession with getting love and attention from her very cold mother. A psychologist/psychiatrist can probably explain perfectly why Abramovic always pushed the physical and mental boundaries in her artistic performances, even to the point of masochism, and explicitly went on an exhibitionistic tour. Her ‘performance art’ is not my genre, I must admit, but it remains intriguing.

Abramović grew up in Belgrade, in a grand, book-filled apartment big enough to house the aforementioned childhood studio. Unlike most families, hers did not suffer the privations of communist Yugoslavia; in the war, her parents had fought with Tito’s partisans, and when it was over, they were rewarded with important jobs in the Party. But if they were privileged, they were also wildly unhappy. They loathed one another, and her mother, Danica, was controlling and violent. Even at the age of 24, her daughter was still expected to return home by 10pm. Escape should have presented itself in the form of art school (the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade), and an early marriage (to Neša Paripović, then a fellow student). But Danica’s grip was unshakeable. In consequence, Abramović’s rebellions took ever more extreme forms. On one occasion, she smeared the contents of 300 cans of brown shoe polish on the walls and windows of her bedroom and studio. Her mother opened the door, screamed, and never entered again. Though work is a salve, not even art can stave off a future that is shrinking all the timeYou know, I just was reading some Ernst Jünger, and he has a line: “Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are!” Wonderful. It is important not to fear pain, to understand pain and accept it. Then pain is much more bearable. Like now, when I was in the hospital, they were giving me opiates every two hours because there was unbearable pain. But I understand if I take this, I will look like a vegetable. So I was taking every two hours, four, then eight and nine, and then finally I didn’t take any. I just deal with pain. But this for a much faster recovery. Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance as a visual art form. She created some of the most important early works in this practice, including Rhythm 0 (1974), in which she offered herself as an object of experimentation for the audience, as well as Rhythm 5 (1974), where she lay in the centre of a burning five-point star to the point of losing consciousness. These performances married concept with physicality, endurance with empathy, complicity with loss of control, passivity with danger. They pushed the boundaries of self-discovery, both of herself and her audience. They also marked her first engagements with time, stillness, energy, pain, and the resulting heightened consciousness generated by long durational performance.

During a minor operation at the hospital in May, shesuffered a pulmonary embolism that led her to undergothree operations and nine blood transfusions.She was in intensive care for six weeks,spendingsome time in a coma. 'Four Crosses' (2019) by Marina Abramovic at the Royal Academy Image: Justin NG/Photoshot/picture alliance

Marina Abramović Hon RA (b. 1946)

Abramovic has since carved a reputation as a pioneering performance artistwho continues to test her physical and psychological limits. Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramovic has pioneered performance as a visual art form, creating some of the most important early works. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits in works that ritualize the simple actions of everyday life, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. From 1975–88, Abramovic and the German artist Ulay performed together, dealing with relations of duality. Abramovic returned to solo performances in 1989. Het zijn niet hun emoties die mij emotioneerden. Ook nu niet tijdens het lezen. Het is Abramović’ beschrijving van de performance zelf die mij raakt. Ik moet dringend eens drie maanden lang acht uur op een stoel zitten, zonder pauze, zonder eten of drinken, en doe mij maar dagelijks tientallen onbekenden op een stoel voor me.