Marina Abramović

Marina Abramović (b. 1946, Belgrade) is one of the most influential performance artists of our time, often called the “grandmother of performance art.” For over five decades, she has used her body as both subject and medium, testing physical and mental limits to explore endurance, vulnerability, and the relationship between artist and audience. In landmark works such as Rhythm 0 (1974), she gave viewers the power to act upon her body with 72 objects, exposing the extremes of human behavior. With her collaborator Ulay, she staged radical performances of trust, intimacy, and confrontation, culminating in The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk (1988). Later solo works, including Balkan Baroque (1997) and The Artist Is Present (2010), brought her global recognition and cultural resonance. Abramović has exhibited at MoMA, the Venice Biennale, and the Royal Academy of Arts, where she was the first woman to receive a solo show in its Main Galleries.