There are confluences in life that feel nothing like rendezvous at all, but rather like august rituals: ruptures in the rhythm of time that still pursue movement. She alters its tempo. Time, obedient elsewhere, transcends itself before her. To act in the presence of MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ is precisely that: an initiation. An invitation. Not to art, not to glory, not even to genius, but to something far more precious, much rarer: an ineffable truth. The raw, burning truth that lays you bare. Disarmed. The truth that costs, that demands something of you, that leaves you altered. A truth that requires a transformation, the kind that precedes an important decision: a prelude as urgent as her unveiling.
In an age that celebrates division and fear, MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ reminds us to dream and to love, unconditionally. Immediately. And here is a transcendence, a third option, an alternative. Rethinking love itself: a heart free of doubt, as open as it is pure. Untouched by posture, present for no reason but its own. An organic tempo, an inevitable chaos to design a new ideal, a new order: our own system, our own rules. Far from weakness. Far from lies. Far from the sarcasm of certitude. Far from the ground. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ has sculpted love into performance, performance into an art form: her body into a weapon, and her soul into an exhibition. Marina is an infinite and forever revelation. And that, in the end, is the rarest luxury of all.
Jalis Vienne : Hello Marina, I’m truly honored to have this opportunity to speak with you today. From the very genesis of Archives Futures, featuring you on our cover was never just an option, it was a key pillar. How did you find the day of the shoot with us?
Marina Abramović : I loved our photoshoot, to be honest. I really did. That one was so much fun. You know, it’s not every photoshoot I enjoy. But this was one of the rare ones where I loved every single minute. We were just relaxed and spontaneous. I borrowed a jacket from the make-up artist and grabbed another piece from someone else. It was simply whatever felt right in the moment. I loved that. I really appreciated the spontaneity.
J.V : I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the shoot. Our purpose is always to create timeless images designed to live with us forever, transcending the trends and complex concepts that often dominate. We aimed for something minimal yet easygoing. My first question is simple too: what initially drew you to art, and performance in particular? Why this medium, here and now?
M.A : You know, for an artist, two things truly matter: the heart and the medium through which he expresses what he wants to say. In my case, I was lucky to realize very early on that I was an artist, when I was just a kid. I would go to sleep, dream, then wake up and paint those dreams. I had many visions of creatures, flying, strange things, and I painted them all using only two colors: blue and green. I don’t know why, but those were the only colors I used. From there, I started thinking, how can I use my body, how can I use fire, how can I use blood. So when I found that I can express myself in front of an audience, it was like electricity. Something happened and I understood I could transfer the energy coming from somewhere beyond myself to the audience. That’s when I knew my medium was my body. My body, my rules. It was clear. Maybe it is because I come from a communist country, everything was a straight line. No doubts. Doubt is death. I want it, I do it.
J.V : Your work carries an intensity that could have confined it to the margins. To a grey area reserved for insiders. Yet you have brought it into the light, rendering it familiar, almost familial. While making it popular and impactful on a global scale. How did that happen to you?
M.A : It’s all about energy. Let me give you a simple example. You’re walking through a museum, looking at a painting on the wall. Suddenly, you feel something behind you. You turn around, and there it is. Another artwork. That’s good art. The energy made you turn. You reacted. That’s what matters. You don’t need to know anything, that’s the beauty of it. I hate when you have to read a complicated text before even looking at the piece. I want to react first. Then I can see who made it. But if I don’t feel anything, I’m not interested in the explanation. You have to be able to create from dust, with no ego. We’re just dust in the cosmos. We’re nothing. Only the work matters. And when you understand that energy, you don’t need anything else. I want my work to speak to everyone from the street cleaner to the president, the baker to the gardener. It’s emotion. I’m just here to deliver the work and to connect. I always think of that beautiful Leonard Cohen song, Anthem, where he says, “There is a crack in everything, and that’s how the light gets in.” Human nature is so complex, and we’re all full of contradictions. Light and darkness are one and the same. You can’t separate the light from the dark, or the dark from the light. You really have to understand the balance between the two. And keeping that balance is the hardest thing. I think maybe my success comes from the fact that I never hide mine. I show them. I’m never ashamed of them. And that’s where people can connect, with vulnerability. Because we’re all the same human beings. We all carry the same truths.
J.V : There will always be people somewhere who cross the desert without a compass or even a map. Having crossed it a million times yourself, what would you say to those travelers to illuminate their path, or at least help them keep walking?
M.A : Be special, whatever you do. That’s what I would tell people. No secrets. No lies. You have to be true to yourself. You have to break the rules. You have to feel pain. You have to get hurt. What I see in your generation, and it’s a problem across so many young people today, is a fear of emotion. You’re afraid to feel pain. You’re afraid to suffer. But that’s exactly what you need: emotion. That’s how you reach a kind of clairvoyance. As we said earlier, clarity and light come from pain. Your generation connects with my work because they know I’m not afraid. I’m not bullshitting. I mean it. It’s like in Japan: so many young people are afraid of getting into relationships because they’re afraid of being hurt. But you can’t live that way. You have to connect. I’m working right now on a new show called Balkan Erotic Epic. It premieres on October 9th in Manchester. And your generation is exactly who I want to speak to with this piece. It’s one of the biggest and most complex works I’ve ever created: 75 performers across 13 stages, all at once. It’s about sex. It’s about rules. It’s about how ancient cultures understood desire, energy, rituals, and its connection to the cosmos. Now, when everything feels so broken and violent outside, we need to come back to the body. To our raw energy. That’s where life is. That’s where humanity is. And now that I’m turning 80, I think I’ve earned the right to speak about life more than most.
J.V : We’ve become more reluctant to open up to others. We’re a generation that is asked to lock the door while being expected to carry the weight of a social transformation. Maybe it’s a safety mechanism. Still, our society feels increasingly divided. Your work seems to offer a third way, a space beyond that polarity. How can artists contribute to a better society, and how do you envision the future of humanity?
M.A : I think our humanity is in deep shit. Really. We never learn from our mistakes. If you look at the big picture, since the beginning, we have been killing each other, being violent to each other. Different wars, different names, different conflicts, but it’s always the same. The planet counts 8 billion people, that’s a lot. We are constantly repeating the same loop, over and over. If we don’t learn to forgive each other, we will never change. I’m always impressed by how human nature can change when facing a catastrophe. That’s when our true self reveals itself. Look at Covid. You know, every war, every big event creates a kind of Renaissance, a moment of hope and renewal, then it becomes the same shit again. It’s a cycle. But I’m convinced that if we all work together, if we really try, there is hope. The sad part is that we only seem to change when forced by catastrophe. Artists alone can’t change the world. The real question we have to ask ourselves is what can we do, personally, in our daily life, to change something. Everyone has to do their homework. This is not a question of ideology, but survival. We need to face it honestly. The future depends on what you do, here and now. That’s the key.
J.V :If you were to meet an alien, what would you want them to understand about us?
M.A : I would love to meet an alien before I die. It’s my big wish in life. I would be very humble, because we need to learn from them, not to give them more bullshit. They probably know much more than us. If I don’t meet an alien, I want a ticket to send me to space, just to see what is behind all of this. When I was a kid, I always wanted to know what is behind the cosmos. We always have this idea that aliens look like monsters, but I think we are surrounded by what we call aliens. We are surrounded by different and unknown energy. Think about the sea, think about water. Becoming conscious of all of this is already a step toward them. The planets, the animals, the nature, the stars. We are living with aliens, we just don’t have enough time to actually sit and look around.
J.V : To conclude our conversation, we like to ask all our guests: what is your own personal definition of luxury?
M.A : Luxury for me is to be in the right place, in the right time, with the people I love.
