Born in Belgrade in 1946, Marina Abramović is one of the most influential and internationally celebrated artists of our time, and a pioneering figure in the history of performance art. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she has radically transformed the relationship between artist, artwork and audience, establishing performance as a major form of contemporary artistic expression.

Since the early 1970s, Abramović has used her own body as both subject and medium, exploring endurance, vulnerability, time, silence and human connection. Through physically and psychologically demanding works, she has continually tested the limits of the body and mind, creating some of the most iconic performances in contemporary art.

Her work has been presented by the world’s leading museums and cultural institutions. In 1997, she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the Venice Biennale for Balkan Baroque. In 2010, the Museum of Modern Art in New York devoted a major retrospective to her work, The Artist Is Present, during which Abramović performed daily for nearly three months, creating one of the defining works of her career.

Her landmark performances and exhibitions have also been presented at Documenta, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Centre Pompidou and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In 2023, she became the first female artist in the Royal Academy’s history to occupy its entire Main Galleries with a solo exhibition.

Abramović has received numerous international distinctions throughout her career, including the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts and the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture. She is also the founder of the Marina Abramović Institute, dedicated to the preservation and development of performance and long-durational work.

Through her uncompromising exploration of presence, endurance and the relationship between artist and audience, Marina Abramović has profoundly expanded the possibilities of art and established herself as one of the defining figures of contemporary art.