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