This is my 18th conversation with Marina Abramović. It's a conversation about some big themes of art — death, hope, life, fear. And these themes are, of course, at the core of her practice.
Our first recorded conversation took place on a bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka in the 1990s. We travelled together through Japan for a conference at the Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu. Since then there have been conversations on trains, in train stations, in cars, hotel rooms, over games of dominoes, in opera houses and so on.
The next instalment of our conversation will take place while she crosses the sea by boat to come to Europe for her show at London's Royal Academy, opening in September. As we discuss here, she cannot currently travel by plane. This will be my first boat conversation — a conversation on the slow-move.
Marina never works on just one thing — it's like in quantum physics: there are always multiple parallel realities, many dimensions to her work at one time. While she is focusing on the Royal Academy show, her institute's curated group show at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall and her opera, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, at English National Opera will also open in London this autumn. Then there are several artist books and publications, even her own line of beauty products incoming — her own brand, in a way.
It was, of course, very magical to sit down with her for this Zoom, to add another chapter to our ever-growing collection of conversations.
HANS ULRICH OBRIST So, you're teaching a Pina Bausch class right now, the performance of which will have happened by the time this magazine is out. Of course, you never met Bausch but you share many commonalities — she had a huge impact on 20th-century dance, theatre culture and performance with a focus on the body, communicating emotionality through physicality. Teaching is also an important part of both of your practices. How will the Pina Bausch and Marina Abramović methodologies come together on this occasion? And how did this come about?
MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ I got a phone call from Salomon Bausch, Pina's son, early last year. [The Pina Bausch Foundation] asked me if I wanted to teach a class as the first Pina Bausch professor, because they and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen had started this professorship in her honour, with the support of the region's culture minister. They wanted students from all kinds of disciplines. For three days I couldn't decide — but my connection to young people and teaching is so passionate that I could not say no, even if it's crazy to travel from America to Essen and back.
