Marina Abramovic

Biography

Born in Belgrade, Marina Abramović is a Serbian performance and conceptual artist whose work examines body art, endurance, and the exchange between performer and audience. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965 to 1970 and completed postgraduate work in Zagreb in 1972, then taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad from 1973 to 1975 while beginning her first solo performances. Her early pieces, including Rhythm 10 and Rhythm 0, tested physical and mental limits. She founded the Marina Abramović Institute in 2007 and has described herself as the grandmother of performance art. Her Balkan Baroque won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1997. In 2010 she performed The Artist Is Present at the Museum of Modern Art, sitting silently opposite visitors. The documentary Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012) won a Peabody Award.

79years old

Turns 80 on November 30in 29 days

Born November 30, 1946Belgrade
Star sign: SagittariusThe sign runs November 22 to December 21
Also credited as Marina Abramoviæ, Marina Abramovicz and M. Abramovic

Movie Career

Films: 3
Career span: 8 years2012 to 2020

Every film, newest first

2020Derek DelGaudio's In & of ItselfIMDb rating 8.2
2016Franca: Chaos and CreationIMDb rating 7.5
2012Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is PresentIMDb rating 7.8

Genres

Did you know?!

First role
Abramovic's first performance, staged in Edinburgh in 1973, drew on ritual and gesture. She used ten knives and two tape recorders for the Knife game, aiming rhythmic jabs between the splayed fingers of one hand.
Behind the award
For a piece referencing the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans during the 1990s, Abramović spent four days vigorously scrubbing thousands of bloody cow bones. The performance piece won her the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale.
A first
Abramović performed The Artist Is Present, a static and silent piece lasting 736 hours and 30 minutes, sitting immobile in the museum's atrium while spectators took turns sitting opposite her.