Marina Abramović has returned to Berlin for her first major solo presentation in the city since the 1990s, occupying the Gropius Bau with an exhibition titled "Balkan Erotic Epic." The show is less a retrospective and more a visceral exploration of the body as a site of political and spiritual friction. Co-curated by Agnes Gryczkowska and Jenny Schlenzka, the installation weaves together historical performances with new works, positioning the erotic not as provocation, but as a fundamental driver of fertility, mortality, and transformation.
The exhibition draws heavily from Balkan folklore, translating ancient rituals into a contemporary vocabulary of film, sculpture, and live action. In the video work *Tito’s Funeral* (2025), Abramović captures women in a trance-like state of communal mourning, their rhythmic chest-beating serving as a bridge between personal grief and national history. This tension between the individual and the collective is a recurring motif, underscored by live performances that feature brass band processions and the traditional vocalizations of Svetlana Spajić.
By framing the erotic through the lens of ritual intensity, the show challenges the viewer to look past the surface of the performance. It presents a world where humor and lamentation coexist, and where the boundaries of the self are constantly tested against the weight of heritage. At Gropius Bau, the body remains Abramović’s primary medium—a vessel for testing the limits of endurance and the persistence of memory.
With reporting from ARTnews.
Source · ARTnews
