The Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea , also known as the Florence Biennale is an art exhibition held in Florence, Italy. Since 1997 it has been held every two years in the exhibition spaces of the Fortezza da Basso , Florence .
123-517: The list of the famous participants include Marina Abramović , David Hockney , Christo & Jeanne-Claude , Gilbert & George , Anish Kapoor , El Anatsui and others. The exhibition is held under the patronage of the UNESCO (the Italian Commission), European Parliament , Italian Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Tuscany Region, and Municipality of Florence. The Biennale in its current form
246-406: A feminist statement, Abramović herself rejects this analysis. Her body studies, she insists, have always been concerned primarily with the body as the unit of an individual, a tendency she traces to her parents' military pasts. Rather than concerning themselves with gender ideologies, Abramović/Ulay explored extreme states of consciousness and their relationship to architectural space. They devised
369-634: A guerrilla campaign which enjoyed gradually increased levels of success and support of the general populace, and succeeded in controlling large chunks of Yugoslav territory. These were managed via the "People's committees", organized to act as civilian governments in areas of the country controlled by the communists, even limited arms industries were set up. At the very beginning, Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure. They had two major advantages over other military and paramilitary formations in former Yugoslavia: Occupying and quisling forces, however, were quite aware of
492-597: A book and featured in an exhibition at the Danziger Gallery in New York. Abramović said the show changed her life "completely – every possible element, every physical emotion". After Lady Gaga saw the show and publicized it, Abramović found a new audience: "So the kids from 12 and 14 years old to about 18, the public who normally don't go to the museum, who don't give a shit about performance art or don't even know what it is, started coming because of Lady Gaga. And they saw
615-411: A deeper understanding of the artist as performer, since it revealed a way of "having the artistic self made available for self-scrutiny". The work of Abramović and Ulay tested the physical limits of the body and explored male and female principles, psychic energy, transcendental meditation , and nonverbal communication . While some critics have explored the idea of a hermaphroditic state of being as
738-426: A doctor and others intervened and extricated her from the star. Abramović later commented upon this experience: "I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit. When you lose consciousness you can't be present, you can't perform." Prompted by her loss of consciousness during Rhythm 5 , Abramović devised the two-part Rhythm 2 to incorporate a state of unconsciousness in a performance. She performed
861-414: A grid of lit candles, and of Vito Acconci 's 1972 performance in which the artist masturbated under the floorboards of a gallery as visitors walked overhead. It is argued that Abramović re-performed these works as a series of homages to the past, though many of the performances were altered from the originals. All seven performances were dedicated to Abramović's late friend Susan Sontag . A full list of
984-472: A heroic resistance against formidable odds and in doing so you are proving true to your great traditions. Serbs, we know you. You were our allies in the last war and your armies are covered with glory. Croats and Slovenes, we know your military history. For centuries you were the bulwark of Christianity. Your fame as warriors spread far and wide on the Continent. One of the finest incidents in the history of Croatia
1107-743: A joint operation known as the Belgrade Offensive . At the onset of winter, the Partisans effectively controlled the entire eastern half of Yugoslavia – Serbia, Vardar Macedonia and Montenegro , as well as the Dalmatian coast. In 1945, the Partisans, numbering over 800,000 strong defeated the Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia and the Wehrmacht , achieving a hard-fought breakthrough in
1230-661: A monument, entitled, Crystal wall of crying , at the site of a Holocaust massacre in Ukraine and which is memorialized through the Babi Yar memorials . In 2022, she condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine . In 2023, she was the first woman in 255 years to be invited to give a solo show in the main galleries of the Royal Academy . Abramović had proposed some solo performances during her career that never were performed. One such proposal
1353-569: A mountain village, the Partisans formed the Kopaonik Partisan Detachment Headquarters. The area they controlled, consisting of nearby villages, was called the "Miners Republic" and lasted 42 days. The resistance fighters formally joined the ranks of the Partisans later on. At the September 1941 Stolice conference , the unified name partisans and the red star as an identification symbol were adopted for all fighters led by
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#17330855143321476-659: A period of four days, a reference to the ethnic cleansing that had taken place in the Balkans during the 1990s. This performance piece earned Abramović the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale . Abramović created Balkan Baroque as a response to the war in Bosnia . She remembers other artists reacting immediately, creating work and protesting about the effects and horrors of the war. Abramović could not bring herself to create work on
1599-404: A scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed audience members to manipulate her body and actions without consequences. This tested how vulnerable and aggressive human subjects could be when actions have no social consequences. At first the audience did not do much and was extremely passive. However, as the realization began to set in that there was no limit to their actions,
1722-408: A series of works in which their bodies created additional spaces for audience interaction. In discussing this phase of her performance history, she has said: "The main problem in this relationship was what to do with the two artists' egos. I had to find out how to put my ego down, as did he, to create something like a hermaphroditic state of being that we called the death self." Between 1981 and 1987,
1845-674: A style of performance art pieces known as "abramovics". A world premiere installation by Abramović was featured at Toronto's Trinity Bellwoods Park as part of the Luminato Festival in June 2013. Abramović is also co-creator, along with Robert Wilson of the theatrical production The Life and Death of Marina Abramović , which had its North American premiere at the festival, and at the Park Avenue Armory in December. In 2007 Abramović created
1968-556: A ten-minute break, she took a second medication 'given to schizophrenic patients with violent behavior disorders to calm them down.' The performance ended after five hours when the medication wore off. Rhythm 4 was performed at the Galleria Diagramma in Milan. In this piece, Abramović knelt alone and naked in a room with a high-power industrial fan. She approached the fan slowly, attempting to breathe in as much air as possible to push
2091-614: A terrible marriage." Describing an incident when her father smashed 12 champagne glasses and left the house, she said, "It was the most horrible moment of my childhood." She was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965 to 1970. She completed her post-graduate studies in the art class of Krsto Hegedušić at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb , SR Croatia , in 1972. Then she returned to SR Serbia and, from 1973 to 1975, taught at
2214-464: Is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist . Her work explores body art , endurance art , the relationship between the performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Being active for over four decades, Abramović refers to herself as the "grandmother of performance art". She pioneered a new notion of identity by bringing in the participation of observers, focusing on "confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of
2337-586: Is also the subject of an independent documentary film entitled Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present , which is based on her life and performance at her retrospective "The Artist Is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. The film was broadcast in the United States on HBO and won a Peabody Award in 2012. In January 2011, Abramović was on the cover of Serbian ELLE , photographed by Dušan Reljin. Kim Stanley Robinson 's science fiction novel 2312 mentions
2460-466: Is the one when, in the 16th Century, long before the French Revolution, the peasants rose to defend the rights of man, and fought for those principles which centuries later gave the world democracy. Yugoslavs, you are fighting for those principles today. The British Empire is fighting with you, and behind us is the great democracy of the U.S.A., with its vast and ever-increasing resources. However hard
2583-690: The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), the Yugoslav wartime deliberative assembly , was to fight the occupying forces. Until British supplies began to arrive in appreciable quantities in 1944, the occupiers were the only source of arms. The other objective was to create a federal multi-ethnic communist state in Yugoslavia. To this end, the KPJ attempted to appeal to all
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#17330855143322706-620: The Berlin University of the Arts . From 1992 to 1996 she also served as a visiting professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and from 1997 to 2004 she was a professor for performance-art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Braunschweig . In her first performance in Edinburgh in 1973, Abramović explored elements of ritual and gesture. Making use of ten knives and two tape recorders,
2829-626: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded from all sides by the Axis powers, primarily by German forces, but also including Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian formations. During the invasion, Belgrade was bombed by the Luftwaffe . The invasion lasted little more than ten days, ending with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April. Besides being hopelessly ill-equipped when compared to
2952-924: The Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a nonprofit foundation for performance art, in a 33,000 square-foot space in Hudson, New York . She also founded a performance institute in San Francisco. She is a patron of the London-based Live Art Development Agency . In June 2014 she presented a new piece at London's Serpentine Gallery called 512 Hours . In the Sean Kelly Gallery -hosted Generator , (December 6, 2014) participants are blindfolded and wear noise-canceling headphones in an exploration of nothingness. In celebration of her 70th birthday on November 30, 2016, Abramović took over
3075-523: The National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia , was the communist -led anti-fascist resistance to the Axis powers (chiefly Nazi Germany ) in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II . Led by Josip Broz Tito , the Partisans are considered to be Europe's most effective anti- Axis resistance movement during World War II. Primarily a guerrilla force at its inception,
3198-785: The Syrmian front in late winter, taking Sarajevo in early April, and the rest of the NDH and Slovenia through mid-May. After taking Rijeka and Istria , which were part of Italy before the war, they beat the Allies to Trieste by two days. The "last battle of World War II in Europe", the Battle of Poljana , was fought between the Partisans and retreating Wehrmacht and quisling forces at Poljana, near Prevalje in Carinthia , on 14–15 May 1945. The Axis invasion led to
3321-568: The Ustaše militias and the German army. Amid the relative chaos that ensued, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia moved to organize and unite anti-fascist factions and political forces into a nationwide uprising. The party, led by Josip Broz Tito , was banned after its significant success in the post-World War I Yugoslav elections and operated underground since. Tito, however, could not act openly without
3444-507: The Wehrmacht , the Army attempted to defend all borders but only managed to thinly spread the limited resources available. The terms of the capitulation were extremely severe, as the Axis proceeded to dismember Yugoslavia. Germany occupied the northern part of Drava Banovina (roughly modern-day Slovenia ), while maintaining direct military occupation of a rump Serbian territory with a puppet government. The Independent State of Croatia (NDH)
3567-498: The West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen , who went by the single name Ulay. They began living and performing together that year. When Abramović and Ulay began their collaboration, the main concepts they explored were the ego and artistic identity. They created "relation works" characterized by constant movement, change, process and "art vital". This was the beginning of a decade of influential collaborative work. Each performer
3690-457: The "Partisans" (capitalized), and stuck henceforward (the adjective "Yugoslav" is used sometimes in exclusively non- Yugoslav sources to distinguish them from other partisan movements). Between January 1942 and November 1942, the movement's full official name was briefly National Liberation Partisan and Volunteer Army of Yugoslavia ( Narodnooslobodilačka partizanska i dobrovoljačka vojska Jugoslavije, NOP i DVJ). The changes were meant to reflect
3813-566: The Academy of Fine Arts at Novi Sad while launching her first solo performances. See also: Role Exchange (1975 performative artwork) In 1976, following her marriage to Neša Paripović (between 1970 and 1976), Abramović went to Amsterdam to perform a piece and then decided to move there permanently. From 1990 to 1995, Abramović was a visiting professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at
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3936-418: The Balkans. (... ) Considering that the Partisans had given us such a generous measure of assistance at almost no cost to ourselves, it was of high importance to ensure that their resistance was maintained and not allowed to flag. The partisan army had long since grown into a regular fighting formation comparable to the armies of other small States, and infinitely superior to most of them, and especially to
4059-559: The Brezovica woods between Sisak and Zagreb, forming the 1st Sisak Partisan Detachment . The first uprising led by Tito occurred two weeks later, in Serbia. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia formally decided to launch an armed uprising on 4 July, a date which was later marked as Fighter's Day – a public holiday in the SFR Yugoslavia . One Žikica Jovanović Španac shot the first bullet of
4182-559: The Chetniks from carrying out overt resistance, however the Partisans were not fazed and continued overt resistance which disrupted Axis forces, but led to significant civilian casualties. Later in the conflict the Partisans were able to win the moral, as well as limited material support of the western Allies , who until then had supported General Draža Mihailović 's Chetnik Forces, but were finally convinced of their collaboration fighting by many military missions dispatched to both sides during
4305-542: The Chinese myths in which the Great Wall has been described as a "dragon of energy". It took the couple eight years to acquire permission from the Chinese government to perform the work, by which time their relationship had completely dissolved. At her 2010 MoMA retrospective, Abramović performed The Artist Is Present , in which she shared a period of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Although "they met and talked
4428-618: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia arrived in Belgrade in late May, and this was of great importance for the development of the resistance in Yugoslavia. After their arrival, the Central Committee held conferences with local party officials. The decision for preparing the struggle in Serbia issued on June 23, 1941 at the meeting of the Provincial Committee for Serbia. On July 5, a Communist Party proclamation appeared that called upon
4551-406: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In 1941, Partisan forces in Serbia and Montenegro had around 55,000 fighters, but only 4,500 succeeded to escape to Bosnia. On 21 December 1941 they formed the 1st Proletarian Assault Brigade ( 1. Proleterska Udarna Brigada ) – the first regular Partisan military unit, capable of operating outside its local area. In 1942 Partisan detachments officially merged into
4674-707: The Florence Biennale is a vanity exhibition , but this changes as the artworks are judged before admission by a professional jury of leading international experts. Over the years, the Biennale has been positively assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Juried artists shown in the exhibition pay a participation fee between $ 2700-$ 4000. [REDACTED] Media related to Florence Biennale at Wikimedia Commons Marina Abramovi%C4%87 Marina Abramović ( Serbian Cyrillic : Марина Абрамовић , pronounced [marǐːna abrǎːmovitɕ] ; born November 30, 1946)
4797-508: The German retreat forced by the Soviet-Bulgarian offensive in Serbia, North Macedonia, and Kosovo in the autumn of 1944, the conscription of Serbs, Macedonians, and Kosovar Albanians increased significantly. By late 1944, the total forces of the Partisans numbered 650,000 men and women organized in four field armies and 52 divisions , which engaged in conventional warfare . By April 1945, the Partisans numbered over 800,000. The movement
4920-471: The Guggenheim museum (eleven years after her previous installation there) for her birthday party entitled "Marina 70". Part one of the evening, titled "Silence," lasted 70 minutes, ending with the crash of a gong struck by the artist. Then came the more conventional part two: "Entertainment", during which Abramović took to the stage to make a speech before watching English singer and visual artist ANOHNI perform
5043-473: The Mirror #3 was performed at Pitt Rivers Museum over five hours. Abramović worked with Jacob Samuel to produce a cookbook of "aphrodisiac recipes" called Spirit Cooking in 1996. These "recipes" were meant to be "evocative instructions for actions or for thoughts". For example, one of the recipes calls for "13,000 grams of jealousy", while another says to "mix fresh breast milk with fresh sperm milk." The work
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5166-428: The Mirror consisted of five monitors playing footage in which Abramović scrubs a grimy human skeleton in her lap. She vigorously brushes the different parts of the skeleton with soapy water. Each monitor is dedicated to one part of the skeleton: the head, the pelvis, the ribs, the hands, and the feet. Each video is filmed with its own sound, creating an overlap. As the skeleton becomes cleaner, Abramović becomes covered in
5289-672: The Muslims, with thousands of them killed. A rebellion began in June 1941 in Herzegovina . On 27 July 1941, a Partisan-led uprising began in the area of Drvar and Bosansko Grahovo . It was a coordinated effort from both sides of the Una River in the territory of southeastern Lika and southwestern Bosanska, and succeeded in transferring key NDH territory under rebel control. On 10 August in Stanulović,
5412-616: The National Liberation Army ( Narodnooslobodilačka vojska ). The name change also reflects the fact that the latter superseded in importance the partisan detachments themselves. Shortly before the end of the war, in March 1945, all resistance forces were reorganized into the regular armed force of Yugoslavia and renamed Yugoslav Army. It would keep this name until 1951, when it was renamed the Yugoslav People's Army . On 6 April 1941,
5535-454: The Partisan threat, and attempted to destroy the resistance in what Yugoslav historiographers defined as seven major enemy offensives. These are: It was the nature of partisan resistance that operations against it must either eliminate it altogether or leave it potentially stronger than before. This had been shown by the sequel to each of the previous five offensives from which, one after another,
5658-412: The Partisans developed into a large fighting force engaging in conventional warfare later in the war, numbering around 650,000 in late 1944 and organized in four field armies and 52 divisions . The main stated objectives of the Partisans were the liberation of Yugoslav lands from occupying forces and the creation of a federal, multi-ethnic socialist state in Yugoslavia. The Partisans were organized on
5781-554: The Partisans. The amnesty would be offered again after German withdrawal from Belgrade on 21 November 1944 and on 15 January 1945. By the middle of 1943 partisan resistance to the Germans and their allies had grown from the dimensions of a mere nuisance to those of a major factor in the general situation. In many parts of occupied Europe the enemy was suffering losses at the hands of partisans that he could ill afford. Nowhere were these losses heavier than in Yugoslavia. The Partisans staged
5904-554: The People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (NOV i POJ) with an estimated 236,000 soldiers in December 1942. Partisan numbers from Serbia would be diminished until 1943 when the Partisan movement gained upswing by spreading the fight against the axis. Increase of number of Partisans in Serbia, similarly to other republics, came partly in response to Tito's offer of amnesty to all collaborators on 17 August 1944. At that point tens of thousands of Chetniks switched sides to
6027-669: The Renaissance era under Lorenzo de’ Medici , "the Magnificent," aiming to reflect Florence's historical significance in the arts during his patronage (1449-1492). It features a medal with a relief portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici, crafted by sculptor Mario Pachioli, symbolizing the enduring connection to Florence's rich artistic heritage. The "Lorenzo il Magnifico" Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals or organizations that have achieved exceptional heights in artistic excellence or have made significant contributions to culture around
6150-609: The Serbian people to struggle against the invaders. Western Serbia was chosen as the base of the uprising , which later spread to other parts of Serbia. A short-lived republic was created in the liberated west, the first liberated territory in Europe. The uprising was suppressed by German forces by 29 November 1941. The Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia is believed to have been founded in Užice on 17 November 1941. It
6273-784: The UK at the Royal Academy of Arts was rescheduled for autumn 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to the Academy, the exhibition would "bring together works spanning her 50-year career, along with new works conceived especially for these galleries. As Abramović approaches her mid-70s, her new work reflects on changes to the artist's body, and explores her perception of the transition between life and death." On reviewing this exhibition Tabish Khan , writing for Culture Whisper, described it thus: “It’s intense, it’s discomfiting, it’s memorable, and it’s performance art at its finest". In 2021, she dedicated
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#17330855143326396-411: The US edition of the book at the Museum of Modern Art in 2018. In 2009, Abramović was featured in Chiara Clemente's documentary Our City Dreams and a book of the same name. The five featured artists – also including Swoon , Ghada Amer , Kiki Smith , and Nancy Spero – "each possess a passion for making work that is inseparable from their devotion to New York", according to the publisher. Abramović
6519-443: The artist for five minutes or less, a few sat with her for an entire day. The line attracted no attention from museum security until the last day of the exhibition, when a visitor vomited in line and another began to disrobe. Tensions among visitors in line could have arisen from the realization that the longer the earlier visitors spent with Abramović, the less chance that those further back in line would be able to sit with her. Due to
6642-410: The artist played the Russian game , in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of one's hand, the title of the piece getting its name from the number of knives used. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of ten she had set up, and record the operation. After cutting herself ten times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat
6765-419: The backing of the USSR , and as the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact was still in force, he was compelled to wait. During the April invasion of Yugoslavia, the leadership of the Communist Party was in Zagreb , together with Josip Broz Tito. After a month, they left for Belgrade . While the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was in effect, the communists refrained from open conflict with
6888-511: The body". In 2007, she founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a non-profit foundation for performance art. Abramović was born in Belgrade , Serbia , then part of Yugoslavia , on November 30, 1946. In an interview, Abramović described her family as having been "Red bourgeoisie". Her great-uncle was Varnava, Serbian Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church . Both of her Montenegrin -born parents, Danica Rosić and Vojin Abramović, were Yugoslav Partisans during World War II . After
7011-440: The campaign on 7 July in the Bela Crkva incident . The first Zagreb- Sesvete partisan group was formed in Dubrava in July 1941. In August 1941, 7 Partisan Detachments were formed in Dalmatia with the role of spreading the uprising. On 26 August 1941, 21 members of the 1st Split Partisan Detachment were executed by firing squad after being captured by Italian and Ustaše forces. A number of other partisan units were formed in
7134-419: The combined Anglo-American forces were holding in Italy south of Rome. The Germans had been thrown into some confusion after the collapse of Italy and the Patriots had gained control of large stretches of the coast. We had not, however, seized the opportunity. The Germans had recovered and were driving the Partisans out bit by bit. The main reason for this was the artificial line of responsibility which ran through
7257-488: The course of the war. To gather intelligence , agents of the western Allies were infiltrated into both the Partisans and the Chetniks. The intelligence gathered by liaisons to the resistance groups was crucial to the success of supply missions and was the primary influence on Allied strategy in Yugoslavia . The search for intelligence ultimately resulted in the demise of the Chetniks and their eclipse by Tito's Partisans. In 1942, although supplies were limited, token support
7380-410: The creation of the NDH, Italian governorate of Montenegro and Nedic's Serbia and the annexations of Yugoslav territory by the various Axis countries were incompatible with international law in force at that time. The occupying forces instituted such severe burdens on the local populace that the Partisans came not only to enjoy widespread support but for many were the only option for survival. Early in
7503-404: The division of Yugoslavia between the Axis powers and the Independent State of Croatia . The largest part of Serbia was organized into the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia and as such it was the only example of military regime in occupied Europe. The Military Committee of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party for Serbia was formed in mid-May 1941. The Central Committee of
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#17330855143327626-410: The earliest visitors to the exhibition. Abramović sat across from 1,545 sitters, including Klaus Biesenbach , James Franco , Lou Reed , Alan Rickman , Jemima Kirke , Jennifer Carpenter , and Björk ; sitters were asked not to touch or speak to her. By the end of the exhibit, hundreds of visitors were lining up outside the museum overnight to secure a spot in line the next morning. Abramović concluded
7749-448: The early stage of the war the initial preponderance of Serbs in the Partisans meant in effect a Serbian civil war had broken out. A similar civil war existed within the Croatian national corpus with the competing national narratives provided by the Ustaše and Partisans. In the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the cause of Serb rebellion was the Ustaše policy of genocide, deportations, forced conversions and mass killings of Serbs , as
7872-433: The energy of extreme bodily pain, using a large petroleum-drenched star, which the artist lit on fire at the start of the performance. Standing outside the star, Abramović cut her nails, toenails, and hair. When finished with each, she threw the clippings into the flames, creating a burst of light each time. Burning the communist five-pointed star or pentagram represented a physical and mental purification, while also addressing
7995-399: The entire country as well as Trieste and Carinthia . After the war, the Partisans were reorganized into the regular armed force of the newly established Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia . One of two objectives of the movement, which was the military arm of the Unitary National Liberation Front (UNOF) coalition, led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) and represented by
8118-699: The fight, our victory is assured. His reports contained two important observations. The first was that the Partisans were courageous and aggressive in battling the German 1st Mountain and 104th Light Division, had suffered significant casualties, and required support. The second observation was that the entire German 1st Mountain Division had traveled from Russia by railway through Chetnik-controlled territory. British intercepts (ULTRA) of German message traffic confirmed Chetnik timidity. All in all, intelligence reports resulted in increased Allied interest in Yugoslavia air operations and shifted policy. In September 1943, at Churchill's request, Brigadier General Fitzroy Maclean
8241-404: The gallery or the museum." During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed The Artist Is Present , a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum's atrium while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. Ulay made a surprise appearance at the opening night of the show. Abramović sat in a rectangle marked with tape on the floor of
8364-419: The grayish dirt that was once covering the skeleton. This three-hour performance is filled with metaphors of the Tibetan death rites that prepare disciples to become one with their own mortality. The piece was composed of three parts. Cleaning the Mirror #1, lasting three hours, was performed at the Museum of Modern Art . Cleaning the Mirror #2 lasts 90 minutes and was performed at Oxford University. Cleaning
8487-482: The gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation." In her works, Abramović defines her identity in contradistinction to that of spectators; however, more importantly, by blurring the roles of each party, the identity and nature of humans individually and collectively also become less clear. By doing so,
8610-427: The highly mobile Partisans and their leadership. By late 1943, the Allies had shifted their support from Mihailović to Tito as the extent of Chetnik collaboration became evident, and the Partisans received official recognition at the Tehran Conference . In Autumn 1944, the Partisans and the Soviet Red Army liberated Belgrade following the Belgrade Offensive . By the end of the war, the Partisans had gained control of
8733-456: The individual experience morphs into a collective one and truths are revealed. Abramović's art also represents the objectification of the female body, as she remains passive and allows spectators to do as they please to her; the audience pushes the limits of what might be considered acceptable. By presenting her body as an object, she explores the limits of danger and exhaustion a human can endure. In 1976, after moving to Amsterdam, Abramović met
8856-553: The influence and suggestion of Brigadier-General Fitzroy Maclean) with the aim to provide increased supplies and tactical air support for Marshal Tito's Partisan forces. During a meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Combined Chiefs of Staff of 24 November 1943, Winston Churchill pointed out that: It was a lamentable fact that virtually no supplies had been conveyed by sea to the 222,000 followers of Tito. ... These stalwarts were holding as many Germans in Yugoslavia as
8979-593: The initiative of Tito following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, and began an active guerrilla campaign against occupying forces after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June. A large-scale uprising was launched in July, later joined by Draža Mihailović 's Chetniks ; this led to the creation of the short-lived Republic of Užice . The Axis mounted a series of offensives in response but failed to completely destroy
9102-460: The limits of her lungs. Soon after she lost consciousness. Abramović's previous experience in Rhythm 5 , when the audience interfered in the performance, led to her devising specific plans so that her loss of consciousness would not interrupt the performance before it was complete. Before the beginning of her performance, Abramović asked the cameraman to focus only on her face, disregarding the fan. This
9225-399: The matter so soon, as it hit too close to home for her. Eventually, Abramović returned to Belgrade, where she interviewed her mother, her father, and a rat-catcher . She then incorporated these interviews into her piece, as well as clips of the hands of her father holding a pistol and her mother's empty hands and later, her crossed hands. Abramović is dressed as a doctor recounting the story of
9348-537: The middle. As Abramović described it: "That walk became a complete personal drama. Ulay started from the Gobi Desert and I from the Yellow Sea . After each of us walked 2500 km, we met in the middle and said good-bye." She has said that she conceived this walk in a dream, and it provided what she thought was an appropriate, romantic ending to a relationship full of mysticism, energy, and attraction. She later described
9471-428: The morning of the opening", Abramović had a deeply emotional reaction to Ulay when he arrived at her performance, reaching out to him across the table between them; the video of the event went viral. In November 2015, Ulay took Abramović to court, claiming she had paid him insufficient royalties according to the terms of a 1999 contract covering sales of their joint works and a year later, in September 2016, Abramović
9594-461: The movement's character as a "volunteer army". In November 1942, the movement was renamed into the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia ( Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije, NOV i POJ), a name which it held until the end of the war. This last official name is the full name most associated with the Partisans, and reflects the fact that the proletarian brigades and other mobile units were organized into
9717-513: The new regime of the Independent State of Croatia . In these first two months of occupation, they extended their underground network and began amassing weapons. In early May 1941, a so-called May consultations of Communist Party officials from across the country, who sought to organize the resistance against the occupiers, was held in Zagreb. In June 1941, a meeting of the Central Committee of KPJ
9840-503: The newly created Italian governorate of Montenegro , and was granted the kingship in the Independent State of Croatia, though wielding little real power within it. Hungary dispatched the Hungarian Third Army and occupied and annexed the Yugoslav regions of Baranja, Bačka, Međimurje and Prekmurje . Bulgaria , meanwhile, annexed nearly all of Macedonia , and small areas of eastern Serbia and Kosovo. The dissolution of Yugoslavia,
9963-690: The occupation, German forces would hang or shoot indiscriminately, including women, children and the elderly, up to 100 local inhabitants for every one German soldier killed. While these measures for suppressing communist-led resistance were issued in all German-occupied territory, they were only strictly enforced in Serbia. Two of the most significant atrocities by the German forces were the massacre of 2,000 civilians in Kraljevo and 3,000 in Kragujevac . The formula of 100 hostages shot for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages shot for every wounded German soldier
10086-405: The pair performed Nightsea Crossing in twenty-two performances . They sat silently across from each other in chairs for seven hours a day. In 1988, after several years of tense relations, Abramović and Ulay decided to make a spiritual journey that would end their relationship. They each walked the Great Wall of China, in a piece called Lovers , starting from the two opposite ends and meeting in
10209-443: The partisan brigades and divisions had emerged stronger in experience and armament than they had been before, with the backing of a population which had come to see no alternative to resistance but death, imprisonment, or starvation. There could be no half-measures; the Germans left nothing behind them but a trail of ruin. What in other circumstances might possibly have remained the purely ideological war that reactionaries abroad said it
10332-404: The performance by slipping from the chair where she was seated and rising to a cheering crowd more than ten people deep. A support group for the "sitters", "Sitting with Marina", was established on Facebook, as was the blog "Marina Abramović made me cry". The Italian photographer Marco Anelli took portraits of every person who sat opposite Abramović, which were published on Flickr, compiled in
10455-407: The piece became brutal. By the end of the performance, her body was stripped, attacked, and devalued into an image that Abramović described as the "Madonna, mother, and whore." As Abramović described it later: "What I learned was that ... if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you. ... I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed
10578-402: The political traditions of her past. In the final act of purification, Abramović leapt across the flames into the center of the large pentagram. At first, due to the light and smoke given off by the fire, the observing audience did not realize that the artist had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen inside the star. However, when the flames came very near to her body and she still remained inert,
10701-574: The pre-war Jugoslav army, in tactical skill, fieldcraft, leadership, fighting spirit and fire-power. With Allied air support ( Operation Flotsam ) and assistance from the Red Army , in the second half of 1944 the Partisans turned their attention to Serbia, which had seen relatively little fighting since the fall of the Republic of Užice in 1941. On 20 October, the Red Army and the Partisans liberated Belgrade in
10824-450: The process: "We needed a certain form of ending, after this huge distance walking towards each other. It is very human. It is in a way more dramatic, more like a film ending ... Because in the end, you are really alone, whatever you do." She reported that during her walk she was reinterpreting her connection to the physical world and to nature. She felt that the metals in the ground influenced her mood and state of being; she also pondered
10947-403: The public being the force that would act on her. Abramović placed on a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use in any way that they chose; a sign informed them that they held no responsibility for any of their actions. Some of the objects could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, olive oil, scissors,
11070-466: The rat-catcher. While the clips are playing, Abramović sits among a large pile of bones and tries to wash them. The performance occurred in Venice in 1997. Abramović remembered the horrible smell – for it was extremely hot in Venice that summer – and that worms emerged from the bones. She has explained that the idea of scrubbing the bones clean and trying to remove the blood, is impossible. The point Abramović
11193-516: The same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing; the double sounds from the history and the replication. With this piece, Abramović began to consider the state of consciousness of the performer. "Once you enter into the performance state you can push your body to do things you absolutely could never normally do." In this performance, Abramović sought to re-evoke
11316-460: The second floor atrium of the MoMA; theater lights shone on her sitting in a chair and a chair opposite her. Visitors waiting in line were invited to sit individually across from the artist while she maintained eye contact with them. Visitors began crowding the atrium within days of the show opening, some gathering before the exhibit opened each morning to get a better place in line. Most visitors sat with
11439-513: The show and then they started coming back. And that's how I get a whole new audience." In September 2011, a video game version of Abramović's performance was released by Pippin Barr. In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked The Artist Is Present ninth (along with Rhythm 0 ) in his list of the greatest performance art works. Her performance inspired Australian novelist Heather Rose to write The Museum of Modern Love and she subsequently launched
11562-593: The song " My Way " while wearing a large black hood. In March 2015, Abramović presented a TED talk titled, "An art made of trust, vulnerability and connection". In 2019, IFC 's mockumentary show Documentary Now! parodied Abramović's work and the documentary film Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. The show's episode, entitled "Waiting for the Artist", starred Cate Blanchett as Isabella Barta (Abramović) and Fred Armisen as Dimo (Ulay). Originally set to open on September 26, 2020, her first major exhibition in
11685-411: The strenuous nature of sitting for hours at a time, art-enthusiasts have wondered whether Abramović wore an adult diaper in order to eliminate the need for bathroom breaks. Others have highlighted the movements she made in between sitters as a focus of analysis, as the only variations in the artist between sitters were when she would cry if a sitter cried and her moment of physical contact with Ulay, one of
11808-605: The summer of 1941, including in Moslavina and Kalnik . An uprising occurred in Serbia during the summer, led by Tito, when the Republic of Užice was created, but it was defeated by the Axis forces by December 1941, and support for the Partisans in Serbia thereafter dropped. It was a different story for Serbs in Axis occupied Croatia who turned to the multi-ethnic Partisans, or the Serb royalist Chetniks. The journalist Tim Judah notes that in
11931-480: The two movements were uneasy from the start, but from October 1941 they degenerated into full-scale conflict. To the Chetniks, Tito's pan-ethnic policies seemed anti-Serbian, whereas the Chetniks' royalism was anathema to the communists. In the early part of the war Partisan forces were predominantly composed of Serbs. In that period names of Muslim and Croat commanders of Partisan forces had to be changed to protect them from their predominantly Serb colleagues. After
12054-531: The various ethnic groups within Yugoslavia, by preserving the rights of each group. The objectives of the rival resistance movement, the Chetniks , were the retention of the Yugoslav monarchy , ensuring the safety of ethnic Serb populations, and the establishment of a Greater Serbia through the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from territories they considered rightfully and historically Serbian. Relations between
12177-414: The war, Abramović's parents were awarded Order of the People's Heroes and were given positions in the postwar Yugoslavian government. Abramović was raised by her grandparents until she was six years old. Her grandmother was deeply religious and Abramović "spent [her] childhood in a church following [her] grandmother's rituals—candles in the morning, the priest coming for different occasions". When she
12300-458: The work at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, in 1974. In Part I, which had a duration of 50 minutes, she ingested a medication she describes as 'given to patients who suffer from catatonia , to force them to change the positions of their bodies.' The medication caused her muscles to contract violently, and she lost complete control over her body while remaining aware of what was going on. After
12423-483: The work is "a comment on humanity's reliance on ritual to organize and legitimize our lives and contain our bodies". Abramovic also published a Spirit Cooking cookbook, containing comico-mystical, self-help instructions that are meant to be poetry. Spirit Cooking later evolved into a form of dinner party entertainment that Abramovic occasionally lays on for collectors, donors, and friends. In this piece, Abramović vigorously scrubbed thousands of bloody cow bones over
12546-465: The works of five artists first performed in the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to re-performing her own Thomas Lips and introducing a new performance on the last night. The performances were arduous, requiring both the physical and the mental concentration of the artist. Included in Abramović's performances were recreations of Gina Pane 's The Conditioning , which required lying on a bed frame suspended over
12669-466: The works performed is as follows: From March 14 to May 31, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective and performance recreation of Abramović's work, the biggest exhibition of performance art in MoMA's history, curated by Klaus Biesenbach . Biesenbach also provided the title for the performance, which referred to the fact that during the entire performance "the artist would be right there in
12792-475: The world. The Visitor Award is presented to the three artworks that receive the highest number of scans through the scan.art digital exhibition guide which is used by visitors during their exhibition visit to receive digital information about exhibited artworks and artists. The cost of the Florentine Biennale is borne directly by the participating artists. At the time this has given rise to criticism that
12915-588: Was (and German propaganda did their utmost to support them) became a war for national preservation. So clear was this that no room was left for provincialism; Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Christian and Moslem, Orthodox and Catholic, sank their differences in the sheer desperation of striving to remain alive. Partisans operated as a regular army that remained highly mobile across occupied Yugoslavia. Partisan units engaged in overt acts of resistance which led to significant reprisals against civilians by Axis forces. The killing of civilians discouraged
13038-507: Was also held, at which it was decided to start preparations for the uprising. Operation Barbarossa , the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941. The extent of support for the Partisan movement varied according to region and nationality, reflecting the existential concerns of the local population and authorities. The first Partisan uprising occurred in Croatia on 22 June 1941, when forty Croatian communists staged an uprising in
13161-424: Was appointed in 2013 and is currently in charge. During the Florence Biennale, an International Jury awards the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” International Award to outstanding artists across various art categories. The categories include Painting, Mixed Media, Photography, Sculpture, Video Art, Ceramic Art, Digital Art, Drawing, Calligraphy and Printmaking, showcasing a wide range of artistic talents. The award commemorates
13284-592: Was begun in 1997 by Piero and Pasquale Celona. The first Art Director of the Florence Biennale was the art historian Stefano Francolini. From 1998 to 2005 the Art Director in charge was the art historian and critic John Spike . Emanuel von Lauestein Massarani, Secretary of Culture and Superintendent of Cultural Heritage of São Paulo took over the job in 2007. Stefano Francolini was made art director again in 2009 and 2011. Florentine art historian and critic Rolando Bellini
13407-514: Was consistently referred to as the "Partisans" throughout the war. However, due to frequent changes in size and structural reorganizations, the Partisans throughout their history held four full official names (translated here from Serbo-Croatian to English): The movement was originally named National Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia ( Narodnooslobodilački partizanski odredi Jugoslavije, NOPOJ) and held that name from June 1941 to January 1942. Because of this, their short name became simply
13530-470: Was cut in one-half in February 1943 and removed altogether in the fall of that same year. Furthermore, Yugoslavia experienced a breakdown of law and order, with collaborationist militias roaming the countryside terrorizing the population. The government of the puppet Independent State of Croatia found itself unable to control its territory in the early stages of the occupation, resulting in a severe crackdown by
13653-494: Was done, she would give them back their clothing, and they could get dressed and then leave. She proposed this in 1969 for the Galerija Doma Omladine in Belgrade. The proposal was refused. Partisans (Yugoslavia) Former Axis powers: Other Allied factions: Other Allied support: Other Axis collaborators: Other opponents: The Yugoslav Partisans , or the National Liberation Army , officially
13776-533: Was established under German direction, which extended over much of the territory of today's Croatia and as well contained all the area of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and Syrmia region of modern-day Serbia . Mussolini's Italy occupied the remainder of Drava Banovina (annexed and renamed as the Province of Lubiana ), much of Zeta Banovina and large chunks of the coastal Dalmatia region (along with nearly all its Adriatic islands). It also gained control over
13899-531: Was inspired by the popular belief that ghosts feed off intangible things like light, sound, and emotions. In 1997, Abramović created a multimedia Spirit Cooking installation. This was originally installed in the Zerynthia Associazione per l'Arte Contemporanea in Rome, Italy, and included white gallery walls with "enigmatically violent recipe instructions" painted in pig's blood. According to Alexxa Gotthardt,
14022-490: Was interested in the traditions of their cultural heritage and the individual's desire for ritual. Consequently, they decided to form a collective being called "The Other", and spoke of themselves as parts of a "two-headed body". They dressed and behaved like twins and created a relationship of complete trust. As they defined this phantom identity, their individual identities became less defined. In an analysis of phantom artistic identities, Charles Green has noted that this allowed
14145-456: Was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock at night until I was 29 years old. ... [A]ll the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o'clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It's completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in 'The Firestar'—everything was done before 10 in the evening." In an interview published in 2013, Abramović said, "My mother and father had
14268-539: Was ordered to pay Ulay €250,000. In its ruling, the court in Amsterdam found that Ulay was entitled to royalties of 20% net on the sales of their works, as specified in the original 1999 contract, and ordered Abramović to backdate royalties of more than €250,000, as well as more than €23,000 in legal costs. Additionally, she was ordered to credit all works created between 1976 and 1980 as "Ulay/Abramović" and all works created between 1981 and 1988 as "Abramović/Ulay". Cleaning
14391-538: Was parachuted to Tito's headquarters near Drvar to serve as a permanent, formal liaison to the Partisans. While the Chetniks were still occasionally supplied, the Partisans received the bulk of all future support. Thus, after the Tehran Conference the Partisans received official recognition as the legitimate national liberation force by the Allies, who subsequently set up the RAF Balkan Air Force (under
14514-500: Was sent equally to each. The new year would bring a change. The Germans were executing Operation Schwarz (the Fifth anti-Partisan offensive), one of a series of offensives aimed at the resistance fighters, when F.W.D. Deakin was sent by the British to gather information. On April 13, 1941, Winston Churchill sent his greetings to the Yugoslav people. In his greeting he stated: You are making
14637-532: Was six, her brother was born, and she began living with her parents while also taking piano, French, and English lessons. Although she did not take art lessons, she took an early interest in art and enjoyed painting as a child. Life in Abramović's parental home under her mother's strict supervision was difficult. When Abramović was a child, her mother beat her for "supposedly showing off". In an interview published in 1998, Abramović described how her "mother took complete military-style control of me and my brother. I
14760-416: Was so the audience would be oblivious to her unconscious state, and therefore unlikely to interfere. Ironically, after several minutes of Abramović's unconsciousness, the cameraman refused to continue and sent for help. To test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience, Abramović developed one of her most challenging and best-known performances. She assigned a passive role to herself, with
14883-616: Was the case elsewhere in the NDH. Resistance to communist leadership of the anti-Ustasha rebellion among the Serbs from Bosnia also developed in the form of the Chetnik movement and autonomous bands which were under command of Dragoljub Mihailović. Whereas the Partisans under Serb leadership were open to members of various nationalities, those in the Chetniks were hostile to Muslims and exclusively Serbian. The uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina started by Serbs in many places were acts of retaliation against
15006-399: Was titled "Come to Wash with Me". This performance would take place in a gallery space that was to be transformed into a laundry with sinks placed all around the walls of the gallery. The public would enter the space and be asked to take off all of their clothes and give them to Abramović. The individuals would then wait around as she would wash, dry and iron their clothes for them, and once she
15129-570: Was trying to make is that blood can't be washed from bones and hands, just as the war couldn't be cleansed of shame. She wanted to allow the images from the performance to speak for not only the war in Bosnia, but for any war, anywhere in the world. Beginning on November 9, 2005, Abramović presented Seven Easy Pieces commissioned by Performa , at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. On seven consecutive nights for seven hours she recreated
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