Abramovic Quotes & Sayings

An artist should not fall in love with another artist. — Marina Abramovic

I had so much fear of blood, and the first thing I did was to cut myself to see what happens. That's the only way to rebuild yourself. — Marina Abramovic

Why am I not feminist? Maybe because I come from a country where my mother ruled my life. I never felt in any way that I couldn't achieve what I want. — Marina Abramovic

I don't know anything about the afterlife because I haven't been there yet. — Marina Abramovic

Two worms lived in shit, a father and son. The father said to his son, "Look at the wonderful life we have. We have plenty to eat and plenty to drink, and we are protected from outside enemies. We have nothing to worry about." The son said to his father, "But father, I have a friend who lives in an apple. He also has plenty to eat, plenty to drink, is protected from outside enemies, and, he smells good. Can we live in an apple instead?" "No, we can't," replied the father. "Why?" said the son. "Because, my son, the shit is our country. — Marina Abramovic

Happiness is such a good state, it doesn't need to be creative. You're not creative from happiness, you're just happy. You're creative when you're miserable and depressed. You find the key to transform things. Happiness does not need to transform. — Marina Abramovic

I am obsessive always, even as a child. On one side is this strict orthodox religion, on the other is communism, and I am this little girl pulled between the two. It makes me who I am. It turns me into the kind of person that Freud would have a field day with, for sure. — Marina Abramovic

I am only interested in the ideas that become obsessive and make me feel uneasy. The ideas that I'm afraid of. — Marina Abramovic

You see, what is my purpose of performance artist is to stage certain difficulties and stage the fear the primordial fear of pain, of dying, all of which we have in our lives, and then stage them in front of audience and go through them and tell the audience, 'I'm your mirror; if I can do this in my life, you can do it in yours.' — Marina Abramovic

For me, the most difficult piece is the one I'm about to make. — Marina Abramovic

When you have a nonverbal conversation with a total stranger, then he can't cover himself with words, he can't create a wall. — Marina Abramovic

If we go for the easy way, then we never change — Marina Abramovic

Theater is something that as a performance artist you have to hate. — Marina Abramovic

People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of. — Marina Abramovic

To control the breathing is to control the mind. With different patterns of breathing, you can fall in love, you can hate someone, you can feel the whole spectrum of feelings by changing your breathing. — Marina Abramovic

When you're 50, the best thing to do is dance the Argentinean tango. — Marina Abramovic

I made a tape recording of a bridge collapsing and I wanted to play it suddenly and very loudly when people were walking over a big bridge in Belgrade. The council forbid it. Their imagination is tiny; mine is big. I want always to shake everything up. — Marina Abramovic

There's nothing more tragic than artists from the 70s still doing art from the 70s. — Marina Abramovic

Performance is there, and if you are not there in that moment it happened, it just stays in the memory. It's so immaterial and something this immaterial is very difficult to collect. Its difficult to buy, its how we can buy immaterial art. — Marina Abramovic

Eric's performance is an awesome and entirely honest expression of the pain and beauty of his music. To watch him play is like riding on the tail of a dragon, but he is so gentle with his rider, you forget how high up you are or how intense the ride is. He is perhaps the most generous performer I have ever watched, every bit of himself is given to the audience. He's like a Marina Abramovic with a piano, completely and deeply committed, regardless of that pain. — Tea Leoni

People in New York never have time for anything. — Marina Abramovic

Theatre is fake ... The knife is not real, the blood is not real, and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the knife is real, the blood is real, and the emotions are real. — Marina Abramovic

Even now, I have traces of the good little girl. When I am not performing, for instance, I am really very quiet and ordinary. — Marina Abramovic

The mind is crazy thing. To be focused is the most difficult thing. — Marina Abramovic

Once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. He said, "Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don't. But you listen to them anyway." So, sometimes with art, it is important
just to look. — Marina Abramovic

In every culture, [there are those] shamans or medicine men who endured incredible physical pain, because it's a door opening to the subconsciousness. And the way we can actually control the pain
it's how to control everything. This is the key. — Marina Abramovic

You know, James Franco is one of the most interesting figures because he has no rules. He breaks all the borders. — Marina Abramovic

The public is in need of experiences that are not just voyeuristic. Our society is in a mess of losing its spiritual centre. — Marina Abramovic

I just want to create situations where people forget time. — Marina Abramovic

I always sent my mother all these huge books I made. When my mother died, I was cleaning her cupboard, and these big books were only 20 pages long. She edited out, maybe burned, every single photograph where I'm naked. — Marina Abramovic

I believe so much in the power of performance I don't want to convince people. I want them to experience it and come away convinced on their own. — Marina Abramovic

I hate studio. For me, studio is a trap to overproduce and repeat yourself. It is a habit that leads to art pollution. — Marina Abramovic

We are always in the space in-between ... all the spaces where you are not actually at home. You haven't arrived yet ... This is where our mind is the most open. We are alert, we are sensitive, and destiny can happen. We do not have any barriers and we are vulnerable. Vulnerability is important. It means we are completely alive and this is an extremely important space. This is for me the space from which my work generates. — Marina Abramovic

When people ask me where I am from I never say, 'Serbia.' I always say, 'I come from a country that no longer exists.' — Marina Abramovic

Art comes from life, not from the studio — Marina Abramovic

We always project into the future or reflect in the past, but we are so little in the present. — Marina Abramovic

From the moment you are born, you could die. I think as an artist it is important to meditate on that. — Marina Abramovic

Artists can do whatever they want! — Marina Abramovic

Happiness comes from the full understanding of your own being. — Marina Abramovic

In the performer's body, you don't care how you look. It doesn't matter if you're old, fat, beautiful, or ugly. It doesn't change anything. The only thing is your charisma and how you express your idea. — Marina Abramovic

One of the most wonderful things for me is to watch somebody else perform, where I am the audience - I love this more than ever. — Marina Abramovic

Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity. — Marina Abramovic

So many artists say they're not aware of audience. For me is unbelievable. — Marina Abramovic

You create a friendship on a level that you've never done before. The basic kind of experience is to basically give love to total strangers all the time, and that really changed everything in me. And this piece transformed me more than any other one before. I saw my entire life differently. What do I have to do? What is my passion on this planet? I'm much more focused than I ever was before. — Marina Abramovic

Don't even ask me why. I do not know, I have no answer to this insane behaviour. — Marina Abramovic

I am not a therapist. I am not a spiritual leader. These elements are in the art: it is therapeutic, spiritual, social and political - everything. It has many layers. But art has to have many layers. If it doesn't, then forget it. — Marina Abramovic

I'm criticizing the way they are perceived. I was going through a book of Marina Abramovic and Ulay's 1970s performance work the other day. These people did two, even three Documentas or Venice Biennales over the course of a decade without any fuss. They would just treat it as any of their other engagements, with the same level of dignity and commitment they'd reserve for a one-day event in a small gallery on the Austrian mountains. — Maurizio Cattelan

I didn't get paid for performances most of my life. If I did, I would be billionaire now, and I'm not. — Marina Abramovic

Through performance, I found the possibility of establishing a dialogue with the audience through an exchange of energy, which tended to transform the energy itself. I could not produce a single work without the presence of the audience, because the audience gave me the energy to be able, through a specific action, to assimilate it and return it, to create a genuine field of energy. — Marina Abramovic

Television is completely another medium. For me, Lady Gaga and HBO are bringing us to mass culture. — Marina Abramovic

From the very early stage when I started doing performance art in the '70s, the general attitude - not just me, but also my colleagues - was that there should not be any documentation, that the performance itself is artwork and there should be no documentation. — Marina Abramovic

In real life, you just work for the ordinary self, but in the front of audience you become the superself. That's a completely different thing. — Marina Abramovic

Woody Allen has a wonderful line: 'Today I'm a star. What will I be tomorrow? A black hole?' That's very important to know - that you have the moment, then you lose the moment. You have to see your chances, you have to take them, and you also have to see when you don't have chances to take. — Marina Abramovic

I really think there's no difference between an art piece made by a man and one made by a woman. Is it a good art piece or a bad art piece? Of course, if you're female, you're maybe dealing with different issues. — Marina Abramovic

We always want to do things the way we like, that's why we never change. — Marina Abramovic

In theater, blood is ketchup; in performance, everything's real. — Marina Abramovic

The hardest thing to do is something that is close to nothing. — Marina Abramovic

It's very important that young artists push boundaries, because sometimes you have this urge to do something - like the impulsive and dangerous urges I had as a child - and if you don't follow through with it you might miss out on a developmental experience. — Marina Abramovic

Talking about performance is such a strange thing because it's so immaterial. We are talking about soft matter. We are talking about something that is invisible. You can't see it. You can't touch it. You just can feel it. — Marina Abramovic

I believe stories are very important to all performances. The life story of the performer shapes their work, and the life stories of the audience alter how they receive the work, what they read into the performer. — Marina Abramovic

To me the pain and the blood are merely means of artistic expression. — Marina Abramovic

In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible. — Marina Abramovic

My grandmother, when she looked at American movies, she said, 'They're all the same. In the first scene somebody shoots somebody and then everybody makes phone calls.' — Marina Abramovic

But what is art other than revealing human nature? — Marina Abramovic

The function of the artist in a disturbed society is to give awareness of the universe, to ask the right questions, and to elevate the mind. — Marina Abramovic

With classical ballet you are literally injuring yourself. — Marina Abramovic

I think 21st century should be art without objects. — Marina Abramovic

Artists should never think of themselves as an idol. Fame is a side effect of one's work. — Marina Abramovic

You know how you feel somebody looking at you, and you turn, and somebody actually is? It's the same at an art gallery. You're looking at one portrait, turn around, and there is a work of art directly behind you. Because it's all energy. Every single thing has energy. — Marina Abramovic

I don't do husbands. I don't do children. — Marina Abramovic

First of all, to do performance art, you really have to give 100 percent. I only know that I have to give 100 percent and then what happens, happens. — Marina Abramovic

I test the limits of myself in order to transform myself, but I also take the energy from the audience and transform it. — Marina Abramovic

You know I very much respect Yvonne Rainer, she is very important - in American dance, the entire development of modern dance, and creating a wonderful physical language. — Marina Abramovic

There are so many rules in the art world. I don't like rules and I break them all the time. I don't care if people think I'm overexposed. What I care about is if I'm going to run out of energy. Overexposure is only a problem if you are drained of energy and cannot come up with new ideas. Every artist has to recognize that and know when to stop for a moment. — Marina Abramovic

If you see a Renaissance body, this is completely ugly in this time. Everybody has to be skinny. But the Renaissance body with incredible flow of the meat everywhere, it was beauty. — Marina Abramovic

Every party is the same, too many people, too little food, and you have to wait around. I'm extremely bored with parties. — Marina Abramovic

Cancer is an emotional disease. — Marina Abramovic

An artist has to look at the future, to see what we can do better. — Marina Abramovic

All my inspiration comes from life. That's how it never stops, in a way. — Marina Abramovic

My new work deals with emptying my body: 'Boat emptying, stream entering.' This means that you have to empty the body/boat to the point where you can really be connected with the fields of energy around you. I think that men and women in our Western culture are completely disconnected from that energy, and in my new work I want to make this connection possible. — Marina Abramovic

People put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one. — Marina Abramovic

I believe that life is shorter; that is why we have to make experience longer. — Marina Abramovic

What you get is the opening of your mind. I'm not preaching any new religion; I'm ritualizing everyday activities. You drink the water. You count the rice. You sit in Crystal Cave. You lie in Levitation Chamber. You push yourself to a new level. — Marina Abramovic

For the first three months, I place each student at a table with a thousand pieces of white paper and a trash can underneath. Every day they have to sit at the table for several hours and write ideas. They put the ideas they like on the right side of the table; the ones they don't like, they put in the trash. But we don't throw out the trash. After three months, I only take the ideas from the trash can. I don't even look at the ideas they liked. Because the trash can is a treasure trove of things they're afraid to do. — Marina Abramovic

It is incredible how fear is built into you, by your parents and others surrounding you. You're so innocent in the beginning; you don't know. — Marina Abramovic

You can't choreograph death, but you can choreograph your funeral. — Marina Abramovic

The world doesn't need an artist who shows reality as it is. — Marina Abramovic

My mother and father had a terrible marriage. They celebrated their wedding anniversary one year with their friends. Why did they celebrate? Maybe because they had lasted so many years without killing each other. — Marina Abramovic

When Lady Gaga says I am her inspiration, you reach kids between 12 and 18. Now I am like a brand - jeans, Coca-Cola. — Marina Abramovic

I notice if I'm too fat or if I'm too ugly or there's skin hanging or whatever. When my clothes start not fitting, I get really self-conscious about what I eat. — Marina Abramovic

Immaterial art is the strongest because there's no obstacle; there's just energy, and I believe in energy. — Marina Abramovic

In America, everyone's always hiding their age. — Marina Abramovic

Most of the time, the artists are not supposed to wear the fashion. It is always seen as a vanity. But I think I don't need to prove anything in my life. I can honestly say I love fashion and I can be many things at the same time. — Marina Abramovic

To really change the way society thinks, you have to give your entire being to it until there's nothing left. — Marina Abramovic

Americans don't like European movies. — Marina Abramovic

I hate repetition. Even when I am home and have to buy milk, I go a different way each time to avoid having a habit of anything. Habits are really bad. So to me it is really important to live in what I call the spaces in-between. Bus stations, trains, taxis or waiting rooms in airports are the best places because you are open to destiny, you are open to everything and anything can happen. — Marina Abramovic

If you do performance and music, it's not performance as music. — Marina Abramovic

I used to have a recurring dream where I was at a party in a country house, surrounded by the same people each evening. Everyone would be singing and dancing and after a while I came to know the people; though, of course, they never really existed. — Marina Abramovic

The big problem of our modern society is that we feel that we are separated from the nature. But it's just the opposite. We are interrelated and our DNA is the same. And only when human beings understand that, the nature will not be obstacle. — Marina Abramovic

Because we never stop silently loving those who we once loved out loud — Marina Abramovic