Biography

Marina Abramović, the winner of the last Venice Biennial, is an all-round artist engaged in theatre and multumedia. She lives in Amsterdam and gives performances throughout the world. Biography is a theatre journey through her own life. The pages in the “living” album of her life open in 1946: “Born in Belgrade/ Mother and father partisans”. In 1975 she meets artist and future partner Ulay: “Meeting Ulay/ Strong attraction/ 30 November 30 November/ Born on the same day/ I write to him:/ Pour mon cher chien russe/ He answers:/ Für meine liebe kleine Teufel/ Going to Prague/ Red drop of blood/ White drop of sperm/ Deciding to live and work/ Together”.
During their thirteen-year relationship these two artists have created some extraordinary works together. Between 1989 and 1993, with Charles Atlas, Marina Abramović developed the idea of staging her Biography.
She filmed the basic ideas for the future project in a four-minute video entitled “SSS”, while the Kunsthalle from Vienna helped her expand it and finally stage it. Abramović, who lived in extreme conditions for quite some time (among the Aborigines in the Australian desert and among Tibetan tribes in the Himalayas), also moves on the sharp edge of physical and psychological endurance in her art. “I have to do things that I fear in order to liberate myself; that’s what excites me,” she says.

Concept: Marina Abramović ( in co-operation with Charles Atlas); performer: Marina Abramović; set and lighting design: Charles Atlas; producer: Consort, Amsterdam.

Organised by Cankarjev dom
The guest performance at Cankarjev dom supported by Lisca