One of the world’s most celebrated performance artists will take over the entire Queen Elizabeth Hall in Southbank Centre, which is your chance to nosey around backstage.
With a Venice Biennale Gold Lion award under her belt and exhibitions at the Tate, the Serpentine, the Royal Academy, and in the Guggenheim and Museum of Modern Art in New York, Marina Abramović is one of the world’s top conceptual performance artists, known for her gruelling endurance performances.
The Serbian born artist carved a name for herself with site-specific endurance performances that pushed the body to punishing limits, including The Lovers, which involved her walking for 90 days along the Great Wall of China.
Star of the award-winning HBO documentary The Artist Is Present, Abramović will now use the Queen Elizabeth Hall - including the building’s auditorium, Purcell Room, backstage dressing rooms, green rooms, technical spaces and foyer - to create a site-specific, long-duration work along with members of the Marina Abramović Institute, a multidisciplinary performance art organisation championing pioneering artists.
The seven showings running from October 4-8 are all self-led, meaning audiences are welcome to discover the works and the site as they like.
The showings will be made up of individual long-form performances located in the various locations within the Queen Elizabeth Hall created by more than 10 artists involved in the institute.
Marina Abramović will participate in two performances – on October 4 and the first session on October 8 – and be present at other times.
Other artists involved are Cassils, a transgender artist who looks at the history of LGBTQI+ violence, representation, struggle and survival by using their body as the canvas and subject matter of their performances. Cassils will perform Tiresias, in which they melt an ice-sculpture with pure body heat.
Cuban-born political artist Carlos Martiel will perform Nobody, which refers to historical oppression and systemic violence by certain populations of the former British colonies,and sees a flagpole with Union Jack flag used as a whipping post.
Tickets, from £60, are available from southbankcentre.co.uk
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