Exhibition
Marina Abramoviàâ¡
11 Jun 2014 – 25 Aug 2014
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- Kensington Garden
- London
- W2 3XA
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- South Kensington/Lancaster Gate
The Serpentine premieres a new durational performance by Marina Abramoviàâ¡.
About
In a unique work created for the Serpentine, the internationally acclaimed artist Marina Abramoviàâ¡ will perform in the Gallery for the duration of her exhibition: 10am to 6pm, 6 days a week. Creating the simplest of environments in the Gallery spaces, Abramoviàâ¡'s only materials will be herself, the audience and a selection of common objects that she will use in a constantly changing sequence of events. On arrival, visitors will both literally and metaphorically leave their baggage behind in order to enter the exhibition: bags, jackets, electronic equipment, watches and cameras may not accompany them. The public will become the performing body, participating in the delivery of an unprecedented moment in the history of performance art.Marina Abramoviàâ¡ is a pioneer of performance as an art form, using her own body as subject and object, she has pushed the physical and mental limits of her being. This is the first major performance by Abramoviàâ¡ since her monumental piece The Artist is Present, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2010, in which visitors were invited to sit in silence opposite the artist and gaze into her eyes for an unspecified amount of time. Abramoviàâ¡ performed this work every day for three months.
The exhibition draws upon the history of Abramoviàâ¡'s use of her body as the basic material of her artwork. During her residency at the Serpentine, the artist will, for the first time, commit to an unscripted and improvised presence in the space of the Gallery.
In the early 1970s, as a young artist in Belgrade, Abramoviàâ¡ began exploring the relationship between artist and audience. Since 1978 she has conducted a series of workshops with art students, using a series of simple exercises to increase physical and mental awareness. Over the course of her career, Abramoviàâ¡ has continued to develop these workshops, expanding their scope to reach a general public, through the Marina Abramoviàâ¡ Institute.
The exhibition by Ed Atkins takes place concurrently at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, bringing together two extraordinary artists from different generations who focus on performance, the body and language.
Please note that the galleries will be closed on 1st and 2nd July.