Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present

March 14–May 31, 2010

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This performance retrospective traces the prolific career of Marina Abramović (Yugoslav, b. 1946) with approximately fifty works spanning over four decades of her early interventions and sound pieces, video works, installations, photographs, solo performances, and collaborative performances made with Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen). In an endeavor to transmit the presence of the artist and make her historical performances accessible to a larger audience, the exhibition includes the first live re-performances of Abramović’s works by other people ever to be undertaken in a museum setting. In addition, a new, original work performed by Abramović will mark the longest duration of time that she has performed a single solo piece. All performances, one of which involves viewer participation, will take place throughout the entire duration of the exhibition, starting before the Museum opens each day and continuing until after it closes, to allow visitors to experience the timelessness of the works. A chronological installation of Abramović’s work will be included in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery on the sixth floor of the Museum, revealing different modes of representing, documenting, and exhibiting her ephemeral, time-based, and media-based works. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue that includes an audio recording of the artist’s voice guiding the reader through the publication.

Please note: This exhibition includes live performers, some of whom are nude, and some works incorporate imagery of nude performers. Visitor discretion is advised.

Organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art.




The exhibition is made possible in part by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc.

Major support is provided by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation.

Additional generous funding is provided by Agnes Gund, Marie-Josèe and Henry Kravis, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, David Teiger, and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.