In Rhythm 10, Abramović used knives and two tape recorders to create an endurance-based action where mistakes (cuts) were repeated and replayed. The work helped set a pattern for her early practice: using the body as the main material and treating time, pain, and memory as part of the artwork. It also positioned her within the growing 1970s field of performance and body art.
In Rhythm 5, Abramović staged an action with a large burning five-pointed star and collapsed from lack of oxygen before being pulled out by others. The incident made a key lesson visible in her work: there are moments when a performer can no longer stay “present,” and the body sets a hard limit. This pushed her toward clearer structures for risk, attention, and audience responsibility.
In Rhythm 0 (Studio Morra, Naples), Abramović stood still for six hours while visitors were allowed to use a table of objects on her body. The work exposed how quickly a crowd can shift from careful participation to harm when consequences feel removed. It became a landmark example of Abramović’s focus on vulnerability, consent, and the ethics of spectatorship.
At Galerie Krinzinger in Innsbruck, Abramović premiered Lips of Thomas, an intense body-based performance recorded through photographs and later accounts. The piece is widely discussed as part of her 1970s shift toward high-stakes endurance and ritual-like actions. It also became one of the works she later chose to re-perform as part of her approach to preserving performance history.
Abramović met Uwe Laysiepen (Ulay) in 1975, beginning a personal and artistic partnership that shaped her work for more than a decade. Their joint practice emphasized paired actions—two bodies under shared rules—to study trust, dependence, and conflict. This shift broadened her focus from solo endurance to relationship as a live system.
In Relation in Time (Bologna), Abramović and Ulay sat back-to-back with their hair tied together, holding still for 17 hours. The structure emphasized exhaustion, mutual restraint, and the way an audience’s arrival can change a work’s energy near its limits. It also showed how their collaboration translated emotional bonds into strict physical rules.
In April 1977 in Belgrade, Abramović and Ulay performed Breathing In/Breathing Out by sealing their mouths together while blocking their noses, exchanging air until near collapse. The action turned a basic life function into a timed experiment about mutual reliance and shared risk. It marked a clear move toward works where survival depends on another person’s control and discipline.
In 1977 in Bologna, Abramović and Ulay stood nude facing each other in a narrow entrance so visitors had to pass between their bodies. The piece made the audience’s movement—and their split-second decision about where to direct their gaze—part of the artwork. It is a turning point in Abramović’s practice: the public is no longer watching from a safe distance but is physically implicated.
Performed in August 1980, Rest Energy placed Abramović’s safety in Ulay’s hands as they held a drawn bow with an arrow aimed at her heart, with microphones amplifying their heartbeats. The work condensed danger into a short duration, showing how minimal movement can carry high stakes. It became one of their best-known statements about trust, balance, and shared responsibility.
On March 30, 1988, Abramović and Ulay began The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk, starting from opposite ends of the Great Wall and walking for months to meet. The journey turned a relationship break into a structured, public action with distance and time as the main elements. Its ending marked a major transition: Abramović’s practice moved fully into a new solo phase.
At the 1997 Venice Biennale, Abramović performed Balkan Baroque, scrubbing piles of bloody cow bones for days as a response to violence in the Balkans during the 1990s. The work shifted her endurance approach from private limits to collective trauma and historical memory. It was awarded the Golden Lion, reinforcing her international standing in contemporary art.
In November 2002 at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, Abramović staged The House with the Ocean View, living on elevated platforms under strict rules and fasting for a defined period. The piece made ordinary actions—sitting, sleeping, washing—into a long public test of attention and self-control. It helped define her mature durational style, where sustained presence is the main event.
In November 2005 at the Guggenheim Museum, Abramović presented Seven Easy Pieces, re-performing or reinterpreting historic performances (including one of her own). The project addressed a practical problem in performance art: how to document and transmit works that were originally temporary. It also signaled her growing role not only as a performer, but as a curator of performance history and methods.
From March 14 to May 31, 2010, MoMA presented Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, combining a retrospective with live re-performances and Abramović’s new durational work. In The Artist Is Present, she sat silently for the full run of the exhibition, inviting visitors to sit across from her one at a time. The project crystallized themes developed since the 1970s—risk, endurance, and the audience as an active partner—while establishing a widely recognized public legacy by 2010.
Marina Abramović's Performance Practice (1973–2010)