Marina Abramović: Two Hearts

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Since the 1970s, she has used her body as a subject and as a medium in her grueling long-term performances to exhaust her physical, mental and emotional boundaries – often even risking her life in search of enhanced awareness, transcendence and self-transformation. For the Serbian artist the concept of time is an important aspect in her work as well as the inclusion of the public. The significance of this dimension of her work could be seen in her performances “Thomas Lips“ (1975) at the Galerie Krinzinger and in her performances “Seven Easy Pieces“ (2005) at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, “The Artist is Present“ (2010) as part of her eponymous retrospective at MoMA, New York or “512 Hours“ (2014) at the London Serpentine Gallery.

“Two Hearts“ deals with the heart as the seat of the soul, moral identity and personhood. Having two or more hearts means that different versions of the self are existing in one being. Marina Abramović's exhibition brings together a group of works that deal with dualities and themes such as the self-portrait, feminine energy and feminine identity that were part of Marina Abramović's artistic creation from the beginning.

The solo exhibition features the main rooms, the showroom and the kabinett of Galerie Krinzinger. On display are large-format photographic works and light boxes that deal with life and death, the spiritual and physical, the light side and the dark side, existence and emptiness and the theme of the virgin as a warrior – the embodiment of the human history of morality. Among others, the light boxes “Carrying Elvira“ (2006) and “Virgin Warrior“ (2006), the “Portrait with Maracas“ (2006), “Me and Me II“, a photograph from 2008 – and current works, including five new light boxes “Untitled“ (2018), a sculpture from the series “Communicator“ (2012 – 2018). The series “Study for A Monument (a, b, c, d)“ (2018) and the revised film version of “Dragon Heads“ (1990 – 1992, 2018) will also be presented.

Simultaneously with her solo exhibition at the Galerie Krinzinger, the GLOBART think tank will mark Marina Abramović as the most important performance artist of the present with the GLOBART AWARD 2018.

Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance as a visual art form, creating some of the most important early works. 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 until 1988, Abramović and the German artist Ulay performed together, dealing with relations of duality. Abramović returned to solo performances in 1989.

Ursula Krinzinger and Marina Abramović look back on decades of friendship and cooperation. As early as 1975 selected works by Marina Abramović and her performance “Thomas Lips“ were to be seen under the title “Photo Documentation of Performances Rhythms 10, 2, 5, 4, 0“ at Galerie Krinzinger in Innsbruck. Ten years later, the artist convinced with the work “Photographic Documentation of Performance 3“ in the group exhibition “Symbol Tier“ (1985) also in the Innsbruck gallery. In 1992, Marina Abramović surprised the Viennese audience with her solo exhibition “Transitory Objects“. In 2012 Marina Abramović showed “With Eyes Closed I See Happiness“ self-portraits and objects. In 2017, the series “Holding Emptiness“ (2012) was exhibited in the group show “ICON“. Marina Abramović, born in Belgrade in 1946, lives and works in New York.

Photo: Marina Abramović, 2018 © Marina Abramović, Courtesy Marina Abramović Archives