Marina Abramovic: 512 Hours

Marina Abramović’s performances have always pushed the limits of tolerance ,exhaustion and fear in the quest for ‘liberation’ .The Serpentine premieres another such unprecedented performance by the artist.

In a unique work created for the Serpentine,the internationally acclaimed artist Marina Abramović will perform in the Gallery for the duration of her exhibition which is 10am to 6pm, six days a week –for a total of 512 hours. This performance, for 64 days during the summer of 2014, is realised with the generous support of the Lars Windhorst Foundation. Creating the simplest of environments in the Gallery spaces, Abramović’s only materials will be herself, the audience and a selection of common objects that she will use in a constantly changing sequence of events. On arrival, visitors will both literally and metaphorically leave their baggage behind in order to enter the exhibition: bags, jackets, electronic equipment, watches and cameras may not accompany them. The public will become the performing body, participating in the delivery of the first durational performance by Marina Abramović in a public gallery in the UK. Marina Abramović was born in 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia. She moved to Amsterdam in 1976 and has lived in New York since 2001. In the early 1970s, as a young artist in Belgrade, Abramović began exploring the relationship between artist and audience. Since 1978 she has conducted a series of workshops with art students, using a series of simple exercises to increase physical and mental awareness. Over the course of her career, Abramović has continued to develop these workshops, expanding their content and scope. In the future, the Marina Abramović Institute will facilitate these experiences to the general public, within its broader mission of being a platform for immaterial art and long durational work. Her pioneering works of performance art have made her the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide at institutions including Kunst museum and Grosse Halle, Bern, Switzerland and La Gallera, Valencia, Spain (1998); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2005) Museum of Modern Art, New York in (2010); the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2011); Kunsthalle, Vienna (2012). Abramović’s work was also included in Documenta VI, VII and IX (1977, 1982 and 1992); Venice Biennale 1976 and 1997, with the exhibition of Balkan Baroque in the latter earning her the Golden Lion Award for Best Artist.