The Curatorial Turn and Opera: On the Singing Deaths of Maria Callas. A Conversation with Marina Abramović and Marko Nikodijević

Jelena Novak
2021 Sound Stage Screen  
Marina Abramović is a conceptual and performance artist with a particular interest in the relationship between the artist and the audience. She is especially interested in exploring the extreme limits of her (the artist's) body. In recent years, she has nurtured these interests by restaging some of her earlier works of performance art. To chart some of the more important stages of her career I single out a few key works. In Rhythm 0 (1974) Abramović stood silent and motionless for six hours in
more » ... gallery in Naples, while members of the audience were allowed to do to her whatever they wanted, having at their disposal seventy-two objects. The Great Wall Walk (1988) was performed with her then partner Ulay; they walked for ninety days from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, and when they finally met, they ended their relationship and said goodbye to each other. Balkan Baroque (1997) reflected on the horrors and tragedies unfolding in post-Yugoslavia. In The Artist is Present (2010) Marina sat motionless in a chair at the MOMA (New York) for ninety days, eight to ten hours per day, gazing into the eyes of members of the audience who took turns sitting in front of her one by one. In 2011 Abramović collaborated with Robert Wilson on * The conversation transcribed here took place via Zoom on October 15, 2020, as the first talk in the Resvés Ópera Series of Conversations organized by CESEM, FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. For more information about this initiative see: https://cesem.fcsh.unl.pt/ resves-opera/. The talk was moderated by Jelena Novak. Some questions were taken from the members of the audience and that is further indicated in the footnotes. The author would like to thank Katarina Kostić for her help with transcribing the interview. The article was made with the
doi:10.54103/sss16640 fatcat:qs4xgtyzrfbbda4xzxk6xmzvp4