• Luminosity

  • Imponderabilia

  • Nude with Skeleton

  • Luminosity

  • Luminosity

  • Incontro con Marina Abramovič in galleria

Marina Abramović Retrospective
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2023

Performed selected iconic works by the artist: Imponderabilia (1977), Nude with Skeleton (2005), and Luminosity (1997).

Imponderabilia, 1977

[Live Performance, 1 hour]

Two performers stand facing each other on either side of a narrow doorway. To enter the museum, the audience must pass through the small space between their bodies. Each person, as they pass, must choose which side to turn. Abramović and Ulay performed the piece to explore the idea of the artist as the “gateway to the museum.”

Luminosity, 1997

[Live Performance, 30 minutes]

Luminosity pushes the performer’s body to its limits. The artist sits suspended on a bicycle saddle mounted on the wall, under bright lights, with arms and legs outstretched. Describing the work, Abramović states: “When the body is exhausted, you reach a point where the body no longer exists. The connection with universal knowledge becomes so acute; there is a state of luminosity.”

Nude with skeleton, 2002

[Live Performance, 2 hours]

The performer lies beneath a skeleton that rises and falls with their breath. The work was inspired by a practice of Tibetan Buddhist monks, who sleep next to the dead as a way to overcome the fear of dying.