Quotes by Marina Abramovic - Page 5

People ask why there are so few female artists who succeed. It's because women are not ready to sacrifice as much as men. Women want a man, they want a family, they want to have children, they want to be loved, and to be an artist. And they can't; it's impossible.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Artist
Children
Female
Female Artists
Impossible
Ready
Sacrifice
Succeed
Family Men Women
Women Are
Artists
Family Women Men
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I have the greatest respect for Aborigine people, to whom I owe everything. The time I spent with members of the Pijantjatjara and Pintupi tribes in Australia was a transformative experience for me and one that has deeply and indelibly informed my entire life and art.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Australia
Members
Tribes
Life Time Art
Life Time Experience
Life Art Time
Deeply
Entire
Entire Life
Indelibly
Informed
Owe
Spent
Transformative
Whom
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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 / Artist
Art
Energy
Gallery
Portraits
Single
Behind
Directly
Every Single Thing
Portrait
Single Thing
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All the aggressive actions I do to myself I would never dream of doing in my own life - I am not this kind of person. I cry if I cut myself peeling potatoes. I am taking the plane, there is turbulence, I am shaking. In performance, I become, somehow, like not a mortal.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Aggressive
Cry
My Own
Peeling
Potatoes
Shaking
Turbulence
Life Myself I Am
Actions
Cut
Performance
Mortal
Plane
Taking
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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 / Artist
Girl
Children
Communism
Obsessive
Orthodox
Strict
Turns
Who I Am
Religion I Am Me
Religion Always Me
Religion Me I Am
Freud
Little Girl
Pulled
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There are two kinds of loss of hope, one is the feeling when your pulse slows down and you are going to die, and there's nothing else left. The other loss of hope is when you're living in a country which becomes insecure, and you don't know what the future is. That's existential.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Country
Insecure
Loss
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When I was 14, I thought I looked terrible. I wore these typical Slavic shoes with metal bottoms so you could always hear me coming and this really ugly princess skirt and blouse with the top button closed. I had a boy haircut, a baby face covered with pimples, and a really big nose.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Baby
Boys
Covered
Pimples
Princess
Shoes
Terrible
Typical
Face
Boy
Button
Closed
Coming
Haircut
Hear
Looked
Metal
Nose
Skirt
Wore
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When I was young, I couldn't think about ballet because I had to focus on my own field. But once you secure your own performance area, you can indulge yourself in different territories. Fashion is one. And ballet is absolutely a fantasy, because it deals with the bodies in a different way.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Fashion
Focus
Thinking
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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 / Artist
Black
Black Hole
Important
Stars
Tomorrow
Wonderful
Today Moment Tomorrow
Allen
Chances
Star
Hole
Line
Lose
Moment
Woody Allen
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I don't think anyone does anything from happiness. 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 / Artist
Creative
Miserable
Depressed
Transform
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You know, everyone is always talking about plastic surgery, or the technology, what to do. I really think it's important to help yourself with the technology if you want to feel better, but I am absolutely against any kind of monstrous cuts of the body, lifting that is beyond recognition, this kind of stuff.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Technology
Cutting
Feel Better
Lifting
Monstrous
Plastic
Plastic Surgery
Recognition
Surgery
Absolutely
Beyond
Cuts
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I change so many houses and places where I live; I change them like I change socks. I don't have this absolute, kind of, how you say, attachment. My brother, if he just has to go to holiday to sleep in different bed, for him it is a disaster. I can sleep under this table or in a five-star hotel; I don't care.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Attachment
Disaster
Holiday
Hotel
Absolute
Socks
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When I taught art, I was always asked, 'How do you know you're an artist? What makes you an artist?' And to me, it's like breathing. You don't question if you breathe; you have to breathe. So if you wake up in the morning, and you have to realize an idea, and there's another idea, and another, maybe you are really an artist.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Breathe
Do You Know
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It was incredible, Lady Gaga came to see the piece. She didn't sit with me, but it was all atwitter. Every single kid from 12 to 18 ran to see Lady Gaga and then Lady Gaga left and they stayed. And they stayed another day another day and it created a completely different culture, a different audience that I never had before.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Kids
Culture
Different
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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 / Artist
Artist
Mirrors
Pain
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After my performance 'The Artist is Present (2010)' at MoMA in New York, many scientists became interested in why so many people who sat across from me began to cry. I was incredibly moved by this experience also, and was very curious to know what happens in our brains when we spend time not talking, just looking at one another.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
New York
Cry
Curious
Moved
Not Talking
Sat
Time Experience Me
Across
Became
Began
Brains
Incredibly
Just Looking
Performance
Present
Scientists
So Many People
York
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If you're a woman, it's almost impossible to establish a relationship. You're too much for everybody. It's too much. The woman always has to play this role of being fragile and dependent. And if you're not, they're fascinated by you, but only for a little while. And then they want to change you and crush you. And then they leave.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Relationship
Women
Crush
Dependent
Fascinated
Fragile
Impossible
Play
Too Much
Almost
Leave
Establish
Little While
Role
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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 / Artist
Artist
Audience
Certain
Dying
Our Lives
Pain
Purpose
Stage
You Can Do It
Life Fear Pain
Difficulties
Front
Performance
Mirror
Primordial
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Zooming in, zooming out. I was shocked. I said, "Let's erase this right now, put the camera behind the stage and I'll do the performance just for the camera." He set up everything and I told him to go outside and smoke a cigarette. Come back when I finish. Don't touch the camera. This was the way how I've done most everything after that.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Back When
Cameras
Done
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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 / Artist
Art
Running
Thinking
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I want to die consciously, without fear, and without anger. Three things. I see my friends dying with fear and anger and it's terrible. My grandmother kept her clothes ready for 40 years for her funeral. She lived to 103! But she kept the clothes in a cupboard. As the styles changed, she changed the clothes! I think if I start now with my funeral, it's good.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Funeral
Grandmother
Thinking
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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 / Artist
Men
Mean
Thinking
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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 / Artist
Able
Energy
Fields
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The brother of my grandfather was the patriarch of the Orthodox Church and revered as a saint. So everything in my childhood is about total sacrifice, whether to religion or to communism. This is what is engraved on me. This is why I have this insane willpower. My body is now beginning to be falling apart, but I will do it to the end. I don't care. With me it is about whatever it takes.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Brother
Fall
Sacrifice
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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 / Artist
Home
Destiny
Hate
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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 / Artist
Giving
Passion
Saws
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The experience I learned was that … if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed… I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Cutting
Escaping
Gun
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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 / Artist
Home
Destiny
Mean
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There has been evolution in my work. In the beginning I was very much busy with the physical body and the limits of the physical body but that somehow naturally led me to the mental body and how I could deal with that. Stillness is so much harder, especially for three months. It was a big challenge. As a performer it is the most difficult experience one can have. And the interactive experience with the public made it even harder.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Busy
Challenges
Evolution
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Do you know what's most interesting? Working with the very strong restrictions of the institution. In the Renaissance, the aristocrats would order paintings from the artist. They would order the Crucifixion of Jesus. The restrictions were amazing. Jesus had to be in the middle, three apostles on the left, four apostles on the right - and still you had masterpieces. It's really interesting to work within restriction, and see what you can do with restriction.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Jesus
Artist
Strong
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I had to leave some traces. In the beginning, I would give complete instructions to the photographer. In the '70s, people would come to photograph your work and you would just end up with this crazy material that had nothing to do with your work; maybe I'd pick up two or three photographs that were the closest to the idea. This is why when you look at the '70s, you see much less documentation and really bad material. The material will become misleading to what the piece was.
Marina Abramovic / Artist
Crazy
Ideas
Two
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Marina Abramovic Quotes - Page 5

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