Top 236 Quotes & Sayings by Marina Abramovic
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Serbian artist Marina Abramovic.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
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.
To really change the way society thinks, you have to give your entire being to it until there's nothing left.
When people ask me where I am from I never say, 'Serbia.' I always say, 'I come from a country that no longer exists.'
It's so easy to do things you like. But then, the thing is, when you're afraid of something, face it; go for it. You become a better human being.
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.
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.
The world doesn't need an artist who shows reality as it is.
Yes, 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.
I was friends with Susan Sontag the last four years of her life. She had this amazing charisma and so much energy, but she had a sad little funeral in Montparnasse in Paris. It was rainy. It was all wrong. And I was thinking, 'God, she loved life so much.'
I really don't like art where you need to know so much theory to understand. If the theory is removed, it doesn't do anything. That means that this work is an illustration of theory, and I don't believe in the power of the work itself.
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.
An artist should not fall in love with another artist.
I want to dominate the man's world.
I have always staged my fears as a way to transcend them.
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 just by changing your breathing.
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.
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.'
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.
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.
The entire aim of my work is to elevate the human spirit. We can put the human spirit down so easily.
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.
If you're a baker, making bread, you're a baker. If you make the best bread in the world, you're not an artist, but if you bake the bread in the gallery, you're an artist. So the context makes the difference.
The hardest thing to do is something that is close to nothing.
To be a performance artist, you have to hate theatre. 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.
Unconditional love with someone you've never met is a straightforward feeling that is so overwhelming and fulfilling.
Time is an illusion. Time only exists when we think about the past and the future. Time doesn't exist in the present here and now.
An artist has to look at the future, to see what we can do better.
We always project into the future or reflect in the past, but we are so little in the present.
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.
I am very clear that I am not a feminist. It puts you into a category and I don't like that.
People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of.
Today, our attention is less than the television advertisement. We're looking at six or seven problems constantly. We're living in the disturbed societies of cities. I think modern technology is one of the worst things human beings have invented.
I don't do husbands. I don't do children.
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.
I face so much jealousy, and I am incredibly upset about it.
When you have a nonverbal conversation with a total stranger, then he can't cover himself with words, he can't create a wall.
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.
Artists can do whatever they want!
We are actually living in a million parallel realities every single minute.
Cancer is an emotional disease.
All my inspiration comes from life. That's how it never stops, in a way.
Every party is the same, too many people, too little food, and you have to wait around. I'm extremely bored with parties.
Theater is something that as a performance artist you have to hate.
I don't have tattoos, I have scars!
In theater, blood is ketchup; in performance, everything's real.
I am only interested in the ideas that become obsessive and make me feel uneasy. The ideas that I'm afraid of.
Happiness comes from the full understanding of your own being.
Good art is never made in studio. Good art I make in life.
I test the limits of myself in order to transform myself, but I also take the energy from the audience and transform it.
When you have heartbreak, what's important is that you don't go halfway. Go all the way down. Don't take pills that keep you in limbo. Cry out all the feelings. Then your own energy for life will put you up again. You become stronger.
Of course I dream to have this perfect man who does not want to change me. And I'm so not marriage material, it's terrible. But my dream is to have those Sunday mornings, where you're eating breakfast and reading newspapers with somebody.
In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible.
From a very early time, I understood that I only learn from things I don't like.
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.
We are used to cleaning the outside house, but the most important house to clean is yourself - your own house - which we never do.
Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.
You can't choreograph death, but you can choreograph your funeral.
In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible. The more I think about energy, the simpler my art becomes, because it is just about pure presence.
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.
I had difficult mother, difficult childhood like she had. She is Sagittarius like I am. I almost died from broken heart because of love. And she really did.
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