(by Laura Valentini)
"I began my career in Italy before any of you were born, or you were very young, and returning here is like returning to my second home: come and see the Rome exhibition, which is unique and different from all the others. As I love to repeat, give me your time and I will give you an experience." Born in 1946, turning 80 on the coming 30th of November, Marina Abramović has lost none of the energy and concentration that, following her pioneering role in performance art, have consistently sustained her artistic research over 65 years of work. A lifelong body of work will be at the centre of the exhibition 'Marina Abramović: Historical Works and Transforming Energy', coming to Rome at the Galleria d'arte moderna e contemporanea from 18 November as a tribute to the career of the Serbian artist born in Belgrade and naturalised American. "I am very humbled and very happy that the results of my work can be seen in this exhibition, which brings together all its phases. It is a very different exhibition from the others, also because I chose not to curate it personally — a decision I consider very fortunate, as it allows a different perspective on my work to emerge, one that I probably would not have indicated myself," the artist says at a digital press conference, joining from the United States alongside the curator of 'Transforming Energy', Shai Baitel, and Andrea Tarsia, who curated the 'Historical Works' section, which includes some of the artist's iconic works, among them Balkan Baroque (1997), The Artist is Present (2010) and Imponderabilia (1977). Also present at the event was the Director of the GNAM, Renata Cristina Mazzantini, who strongly championed this tribute exhibition to Abramović. "It is an exhibition we have been waiting for a long time, following the one at the Gallerie, but here in Rome, to celebrate the artist's birthday, it will become a tribute to her career. I have always admired Marina, but celebrating her this year was truly important, given that it is also the anniversary of women's suffrage, and Marina is truly a symbol of women's empowerment and freedom," states Mazzantini.
On the verge of turning 80, "if I look back I see more than half a century of work — 65 years of a career, a life that has already passed, and that is frightening, but at the same time everything will come around again. I recently finished one piece and will soon be involved in a new project: yet I must ask myself how much time is left to do meaningful things. Only in that case, in fact, is female art accepted." What prevails above all else is the desire for change: "You put me in a box and I come out of the box; there have been performances in which I was engaged in the act of cleaning, and this means cleaning away wars, guilt, consumerism," but also "cleaning myself. I must constantly change," the artist recounts, "keep moving, otherwise I cannot breathe." In the beginning there was only the body; then spirituality was drawn out through objects. In the exhibition Transforming Energy, Abramović leads visitors to actively interact with a selection of Transitory Objects: stone beds, structures and sculptural forms incorporating quartz, amethyst, agate and other minerals. "I have used materials that reflect energy — crystals, tourmaline, amethyst, copper," she underlines. Visitors are invited to lie down, sit or stand on the works, activating what Abramović defines as a process of 'transmission'.
of energy'. "I have created objects with which I can interact energetically," she explains, recalling that those who participate in the exhibition must work with these objects "with eyes closed, without a mobile phone, isolating themselves. You have to be alone with the objects and surrender to this experience." Something increasingly complicated, immersed as we are, she states, "in a culture that is turning us into robots, dependent on technology that was actually created to make us freer but leaving us not knowing what to do with our free time. I say 'move more slowly, stay in contact with yourself, stay in the moment.'"
On the threshold of 80 years of age, Abramovic confesses to thinking more about essential things and people: "I still like to perform but then I want to go home and be in silence. I love being in contact with nature and with few people who matter, I want to simplify. If there is something I wish for the future? To have more humour because life is so precious that we must be well."
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