Viewing Marina Abramović at Saatchi Yates

The mighty Marina Abramović returns to London just in time for Frieze week, with an unexpected show at Saatchi Yates. Abramović’s last major exhibition in the UK was at the Royal Academy two years ago. It marks new territory for an artist famed for taking risks and surprising her audiences: “If you experiment, you have to fail. By definition, experimenting means going to territory where you’ve never been, where failure is very possible. How can you know you’re going to succeed? Having the courage to face the unknown is so important”.

This solo exhibition focuses on two of the artist’s most iconic performance video pieces, Blue Period and Red Period, turning them for the first time into 1200 photographic stills that will fill the gallery and allow visitors to experience the performances in a completely new way. Each still will be individually available to buy.

Both videos, shot in close-up, explore the evocative symbolism of each colour through gesture, expression, enactment and endurance, creating kind of confrontational and uncomfortable viewing experience Abramović is famous for, pushing us to ask difficult questions and face disquieting truths that reside in us.