Playing With Fire

After more than four decades setting alight the world of performance art, the legendary MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ remains fearless in her groundbreaking work, and is now preparing to become the first-ever woman to have a major solo exhibition in the Main Galleries of London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

- Helena Lee

On a brutally hot summer morning, the Serbian artist Marina Abramovie is sitting in the cool of her suite at The Dorchester hotel in London, eating porridge. Next to a glass of water are 13 pills and, on the table, a collection of invitations fanned out before her: Elton John’s Argento Ball, the opening party at Masterpiece art fair … An assistant busies himself, advising on the timings of the day. She is in London on a flying visit from New York, as she is being honoured by the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel and the auction house Dorotheum at its prestigious annual gala lunch. Later, when we leave the hotel together, the celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck asks for a selfie, and as we cross the road there are gasps, nudges and surreptitious pictures from her fans and admirers. Abramovie commands attention beyond that of an artist; it feels as if I am in the presence of a rock star.

Her rise has been exponential, and she is still on the ascent. When she began her career nearly five decades ago in Tito’s Yugoslavia hoping to become a painter, success seemed improbable. Then, she began exploring immaterial performance art, which, by its very nature, comparatively few would see, but many would hear about. This was the woman who, in 1975, cut a five pointed star (the symbol of Communism) into her stomach, whipped herself and lay on a cross made from a block of ice. The year before, she had stood in a Naples gallery in front of 72 objects and invited the public to use them on her. The objects ranged from a rose and lipstick to razor blades and a loaded gun.