Visiting Marina Abramović at the Royal Academy

The art of life. World renowned Marina Abramović has spent more than five decades stretching the limits of her own physical and mental tolerance through her work. The Serbian performance artist has had her clothes ripped and rose thorns stuck into her stomach by members of the public (in Rhythm 0, 1974) and survived on water alone while living inside a New York gallery for 12 days (The House with the Ocean View, 2002) – feats of endurance that are all represented at the Royal Academy’s not-to-be-missed survey of her work. She is the first female to hit the RA with a solo exhibition in 250 Years.

The exhibition explores human connection and trauma before shifting gear to a more peaceful and transcendent tone, as we see Marina’s own journey through life evolve. Video installations are spliced with four of her seminal performance pieces, reperformed by artists live at the Royal Academy, including the blush-inducing Imponderabilia, 1977, in which gallery-goers have to squeeze their way through two nude artists in a doorway to get from one room to another. At every turn the human body and how we use it as a tool to confront mental challenge is the star of the show. What strikes is Marina’s ability to capture the uncomfortable – those moments of pivot between joy and pain. Ultimately, this is an exhibition about what it means to be human.