WOMEN of the YEAR
ARTIST
Celebrated with a landmark solo show at the Royal Academy, the art world’s foremost provocateur is constantly reinventing herself
SITTINGS EDITOR: ROSIE ARKELL-PALMER. ASSISTANT STYLIST: NATASHA SANTOS. WITH THANKS TO KASURI. MAKE-UP BY AYAMI NISHIMURA/FORWARD ARTISTS. ON-SET PRODUCER: RACHEL LOUISE BROWN
MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ SITS MAJESTICALLY ON A WHITE HORSE, HOLDING a flag that flutters in the breeze as she gazes into the middle distance. Marina Abramović waves a red handkerchief in the air and dances frenetically to folk music. Marina Abramović stands before a crowd, her body marked with knife wounds and weighed down with chains.
These are just a few of the images that confront visitors to the artist’s much-anticipated solo exhibition at the Royal Academy – on film and in photographs, and in several instances through live recreations of her original, pioneering performances, executed by actors trained in her method. The show has inevitably attracted debate for its more risqué elements – to enter one of the rooms, gallery-goers must squeeze through two nude performers blocking their route – but Abramović is no stranger to controversy. Throughout her fivedecade career, she has consistently made headlines for her boldly provocative artworks, which have seen her push her physical and mental endurance to its absolute limits, often making uncomfortable revelations about human behaviour in the process. ‘My work is about telling the truth, even if it’s painful,’ she says. ‘I like to show things as they are, and I think that resonates with people.’
The Royal Academy exhibition
