Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present

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Marina Abramović. Freeing the Horizon. 1973

(Yugoslav, born 1946) 35mm slide projection (color, silent)
Duration variable
Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery

GLENN LOWRY: As a young adult, Abramović showed promise in traditional painting until a number of formative experiences expanded her concept of art. For example, one afternoon she noticed the vapor trails left by 12 military airplanes disappear into a cloudless sky. This experience inspired Abramović to pursue more ephemeral experiments in artistic expression. Freeing the Horizon was one of the earliest of these pieces.

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: I was born in the main street of the Belgrade. I felt really being in Belgrade in some way suffocated me. I needed space. I needed to see new horizons, and there was always around me just buildings, buildings, buildings. So, I started taking photographs of the main squares and important area of the center of Belgrade. And in the time didn't exist Photoshop, so I just with paint, actually removed the buildings and get this imaginary horizon that I can see far away.

When the War came in Belgrade with Bosnia some of the buildings been bombed and they really don't exist anymore. And so something that I was aware that sometimes the artist can make certain prediction of the future.