Balkan Epic: Marina Abramovic

Born in Belgrade in 1946, Marina Abramovic´ pioneered the use of performance as a visual art form. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring the physical and mental limits of her being, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in the quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. Abramovic´ is concerned with creating works that ritualize the simple actions of everyday life, such as lying, sitting, dreaming, and thinking-each in effect the manifestation of a unique mental state. As a vital member of the generation of pioneering performance artists that includes Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, and Chris Burden, Abramovic´ created some of the most historically important early performance pieces and is the only one still making important durational works.

Returning from a series of performances titled Seven Easy Pieces held in November at the New York Guggenheim Museum, Marina Abramovic´ presents her new work, Balkan Erotic Epic. The artist describes it as follows: "Balkan Erotic Epic is based on my research into Balkan Folk Culture and its use of the erotic. Through eroticism, the human tries to make himself equal [to] the gods. In folklore, the woman marrying the sun or the man marrying the moon is to preserve the secret of the creative energy and get in touch through eroticism with indestructible cosmic energies. People believed that in erotic energy there was something superhuman that doesn't come from [them] but from the higher forces. Obscene objects and male and female genitals have a very important function in the fertility and agricultural rites of Balkan peasants. They were used very explicitly for a variety of purposes. Women would show in the rituals openly their vaginas, bottoms, breasts and menstrual blood. Men would show openly in the rituals their bottoms and penises in acts of masturbation and ejaculation."

The monograph, catalogue of the exhibition held at the Bicocca Hangar in Milan, presents six works by the artist, considered by international critics to be one of the outstanding artists of our times: the new Balkan Erotic Epic together with five other video installations, Balkan Baroque (the extraordinary performance/installation presented and awarded the Leone d'Oro at the 1997 Venice Biennale), The Hero, Count on Us, Tesla Urn and Nude with Skeleton.

Introduced with a text by Adelina von Fürstenberg, the book includes essays by Fulvio Salvadori and Steven Henry Madoff, followed by the works, by a conversation on Balkan Erotic Epic between Fredrik Carlström and Marina Abramovic´ and by an interview with the artist by Jeanette Fischer.