Marina Abramović (born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Abramović was born in Belgrade, Serbia, then part of Yugoslavia, on November 30, 1946. Her parents were Youguoslavian “Red bourgeoisie” communists believing in a new world order. She was raised by her grandparents until age six.
Education
She was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965 to 1970. She completed her post-graduate studies in the art class of Krsto Hegedušić at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, SR Croatia in 1972. Then she returned to SR Serbia and, from 1973 to 1975, taught at the Academy of Fine Arts at Novi Sad while launching her first solo performances. From 1990 to 1995, Abramović was a visiting professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Berlin University of the Arts. From 1992 to 1996 she also served as a visiting professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and from 1997 to 2004 she was a professor for performance-art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Braunschweig
Artist Career-
Abramović’s performances are largely ritualistic and revolves around Christian esoterism and occult. Her occult performances were largely based on popular practices in country side in European universe. She herself is staunch believer in occult and spiritualism. Abramović has been described as the “grandmother of performance art.” Her work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. She pioneered a new notion of identity by bringing in the participation of observers, focusing on “confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body.”
From 1971 to 1976, she was married to Neša Paripović, during this period she had performed in Rhythm series. In 1976, after moving to Amsterdam, Abramović met the West German performance artist Frank Uwe Laysiepen(known by name Ulay). They decided to form a collective being called “The Other”, and spoke of themselves as parts of a “two-headed body”. They dressed and behaved like twins and created a relationship of complete trust, as soul mates.
In 1988, after several years of tense relations, Abramović and Ulay decided to make a spiritual journey which would end their relationship. They each walked the Great Wall of China, in a piece called The Great Wall Walk, starting from the two opposite ends and meeting in the middle. Read her full artistic journey at wiki
Birth Chart of Marina Abramović-
