Performance Art Pioneer: Marina Abramovic solo exhibition opens in Beijing
Updated 18:40, 21-Mar-2019
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Marina Abramovic has been exploring feminism and body art for over 40 years. The Serbian artist is internationally recognized, and often said to be the most significant figure in the history of performance art. Now, an exhibition showcasing the artist's pioneering works has opened at Beijing Light Society. Check it out.
The exhibition features Marina Abramovic's new and key past works in the mediums of video, photographs and sculpture. Spanning her 40-year career, many of the works have never before been shown in China.
DAVID TUNG DIRECTOR, LISSON GALLERY SHANGHAI "The exhibition is actually a group of different works of her. It presents both her early performance pieces done by herself and her collaboration with Ulay, her partner, and her new works that have not been seen before."
WANG JUN FOUNDER, BEIJING LIGHT SOCIETY "This work by Abramovic was filmed at a specialized Polaroid studio in Boston, with Ulay's help. This piece would probably be the largest known Polaroid photo, and it is the first time it has been exhibited in China."
Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Abramovic has pioneered performance as a visual art form. Described as "one of the defining artists of radical performance", she has created some of the most important works in the genre. With her body as both subject and medium, she explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the human body, and the possibilities of the mind.
DAVID TUNG DIRECTOR, LISSON GALLERY SHANGHAI "I think there's something we all look for in human engagement. It's very hard for us not to be in touch with other humans, not to speak, not to listen, not to feel, all these things we take as a kind of daily basis. But because of her practice and training, she really takes these things to extreme - not talking for 16 hours, sitting there staring at people for 20 hours, living in a space for 20 days without engagement with anybody. These are the moments where we test the limits of human possibility. I think when we look at that energy, we understand what makes us human."
The exhibition is supported by Lisson Gallery, which has been working with Marina for about 15 years. It runs through June 15th. CGTN.