Born 1946, Serbia.
– Called herself the grandmother of performance art.
– Her work focusses on the practices of everyday life. Exploring their simplicity and latent power.
– Her work is inspired by body artists such as Orlan and Stelarc, who are pioneers in cyborg theatre and exploring technology attached to the physical body to create performance.
– Some of her work has pushed the boundaries in terms of audience/performer relations. Such as Rhythm 0 (1974) which invited audience participation to use any item in the room on her. Including; Lipstick, scissors, matches and a loaded gun.The performance was stopped after 6 hours after an audience member held a loaded gun to her head.
– She often challenges her own physical endurance in pieces such as Freeing the Voice where she screamed until she lost her voice. She has whipped, cut and repeatedly hit herself all in the name of art.
– Abramovic’s long term partner, Ulay often featured in her work and help explore the notions of pain and the endurance of time.
-She uses her work to make political points, such as Balkan Baroque (1997) which featured Abramovic sat on a pile of bones and scrubbing them with disinfectant. The piece directly referred to the ethnic cleansing of recent wars in her homeland.
-One of her most famous pieces is The artist is Present, where she didn’t eat or talk for 12 days but allowed audiences to sit across from her and exchange in a ‘energy dialogue’. She later explained the piece was in direct response to 9/11.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-marina-abramovic-performance-artist [Accessed 18th February, 2015]