Performance artist Marina Abramovic will give a lecture on “The Past, Present and Future of Performance Art” on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 6 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, Abramovic has been performing since the early 1970s. Since the beginning of her career she has pioneered performance as a visual art form, creating some of the most important early works. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits in works that ritualize the simple actions of everyday life, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation.
In 2010, Abramovic had her first major retrospective in the United States at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and simultaneously performed for more than 700 hours.
In January, the HBO documentary on Abramovic titled The Artist is Present premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Upcoming Abramovic exhibitions in 2012 include shows at PAC and Lia Rumma Galeria, Milan, The University of Chicago, Kunsthalle Vienna and solo shows at La Fabrica Gallery, Madrid and Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo.
Abramovic has won numerous prizes and awards for her work, including a Cultural Leadership Award from the American Federation of the Arts, a Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Award from the International Association of Art Critics, and a Golden Lion Award from XLVII Venice Biennale.
The lecture, part of Hamilton’s Visiting Artists Series, is co-sponsored by the art department, the Dean of Faculty, the Kirkland Endowment, and the Dietrich Foundation.
