Marina Abramović to Take Over Southbank Centre
Durational performances led by the Marina Abramović Institute will span the centre's entire Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Marina Abramović Institute's Despina Zacharopoulou, Corner Time, Benaki Museum, Athens (2016). Photo: © Natalia Tsoukala.
London's Southbank Centre has announced the Marina Abramović Institute Takeover as part of its new season of performance and dance programmes.
From 4 to 8 October, a set of lengthy durational performances curated by Abramović and the Marina Abramović Institute will invite audiences to explore all areas of the centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall.
This includes not only the main auditorium, Purcell Room, and foyer, but also backstage spaces including green rooms, dressing rooms, and technical spaces.
In keeping with the artist's audience-implicating approach to performance, Abramović said that visitors 'will be invited not just to be an observer, but also to actively participate.'
Other performers in the programme include French-Canadian artist Carla Adra, Myanmar artist group Collective Absentia, Brazilian artists Paula Garcia and Paul Setúbal, Cuban installation and performance artist Carlos Martiel, Berlin-based artist Yiannis Pappas, and Greek performance artist Despina Zacharopoulou.
Abramović herself will participate on 4 and 8 October, recognising her passion for 'expanding beyond my own practice by supporting other performance artists through this project.'
'Long durational performances are one of the most ephemeral, unique, difficult, demanding and transformative works of art today,' she said. 'My institute ... will present very different views of this medium.'
The takeover will follow the opening of a twice-postponed solo show by the artist at the Royal Academy on 23 September. —[O]
