Friday 13 June 2014
The Serpentine Galleries and The Space present
MARINA AT MIDNIGHT
Marina Abramovíc: 512 Hours
Serpentine Diaries
After Marina Abramović has closed the doors to visitors at the end of each day of her performance 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery she records a summary of the past eight hours by speaking directly to camera. This eloquent and moving record is a testament to “one of the most difficult things she has ever done.” The short daily films will trace the fluctuations and developments of her performance piece, which begins with an empty space and unlimited possibilities.
Marina at Midnight will launch on Friday 13 June with The Space, a new creative online platform dedicated to new digital art. The first three installments will be broadcast on Friday, with a new diary released at midnight each night, from 13 June until 25 August on www.thespace.org; www.serpentinegalleries.org; www.illy.com; www.mai-hudson.org. The diaries will be available to watch again on all platforms.
For her Serpentine exhibition, Marina Abramović performs in the Serpentine Gallery from10am to 6pm, 6 days a week for 64 days. Her only materials are herself, the audience and a selection of common objects that she will use in a constantly changing sequence of events. The public becomes the performing body, participating in the delivery of an unprecedented moment in the history of performance art.
Abramović is a pioneer of performance as an art form, using her own body as subject and object, she has pushed the physical and mental limits of her being. 512 Hours is the first major performance by Abramović since her monumental piece The Artist is Present, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2010, in which visitors were invited to sit in silence opposite the artist and gaze into her eyes for an unspecified amount of time. Abramović performed this work every day for three months.
In the early 1970s, as a young artist in Belgrade, Abramović began exploring the relationship between artist and audience. Since 1978 she has conducted a series of workshops with art students, using a series of simple exercises to increase physical and mental awareness. Over the course of her career, Abramović has continued to develop these workshops, expanding their scope to reach a general public, through the Marina Abramović Institute.
Marina Abramović was born in 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia. She moved to Amsterdam in 1976 and has lived in New York since 2001. Her pioneering works of performance art have made her the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide at institutions including Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2005) Museum of Modern Art, New York in (2010); the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2011); Kunsthalle, Vienna (2012). Abramović’s work was also included in Documenta VI, VII and IX (1977, 1982 and 1992); Venice Biennale 1976 and 1997, with the exhibition of Balkan Baroque in the latter earning her the Golden Lion Award for Best Artist.
Marina at Midnight is co-commissioned by the Serpentine Galleries and The Space, in collaboration with Illycaffé and Marina Abramović Institute (MAI)
Notes to Editors
The Space:
The Space is a free website for artists and audiences to create and explore exciting new art.They commission new talent and great artists from all art forms, creative industries, technical and digital backgrounds, through regular Open Calls and partnerships. Set up by the BBC and the Arts Council England, The Space is a free public space, a not-for-profit public service for artists and audiences around the world.
Illy Caffé Based in Trieste, Italy, illycaffè produces and markets a unique blend of espresso coffee and is the leading quality coffee brand. Over 6 million cups of illy espresso coffee are enjoyed every day. illy is sold in over 140 countries around the world and is available in more than 100,000 of the best restaurants and coffee bars. As the official partner of Expo Milano 2015 illycaffè is responsible for creating and managing all coffee-related content, exhibitions and events in the Coffee Cluster’s communal area.
Marina Abramović Institute (MAI)
MAI is an online platform for immaterial art, long durational work, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
SERPENTINE GALLERIES
The Serpentine is two contemporary art galleries situated on either side of the Serpentine Bridge in Kensington Gardens in central London. The Serpentine Gallery and the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, present exhibitions in parallel, showing world-renowned art, architecture and design throughout the year.
In addition to the Serpentine Pavilion 2014 designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radic, the Summer season brings together two artists from different generations who focus on performance, the body and language. The ‘pioneer of performance art’, Marina Abramović, takes over the Serpentine Gallery for an unprecedented durational performance while multi-media artist Ed Atkins presents an installation of videos, text, sound and collage at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.