Sex, skeletons and rituals: A look inside Marina Abramović’s 'Balkan Erotic Epic'

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She’s sat in silence opposite spectators for more than 700 hours.

She invited members of the public to do whatever they wanted to her body, using nails, matches and even a loaded gun.

She laid down inside a wooden star on fire and nearly asphyxiated; consumed 1kg of honey followed by 1 litre of red wine before self-mutilating; remained motionless while a huge snake slithered over her body; screamed until she lost her voice; and recently invited visitors to squeeze through naked models.  

She’s renowned for using her own body as a medium for her boundary-pushing work, testing the limits of mental and physical endurance, all in the name of art. 

Now, Marina Abramović, the world’s most influential performance artist, is about to embark on her latest and largest-scale performance work – a project she says outdoes all her previous work.

“Balkan Erotic Epic” opens tomorrow at Aviva Studios in Manchester, England, and until 19 October, the Serbian artist will perform her new four-hour ritual.

Brought to life by a cast of over 70 performers, including singers, dancers and musicians, “Balkan Erotic Epic” explores the eroticism, spirituality and traditions of her homeland.  It has scenes which include women showing their vaginas (“Scaring the Gods to Stop the Rain”), using their chests to “awaken the earth” at burial sites (“Massaging the Breast”) and 16-foot projections of penises (“Magic Potions”). 

“In our culture today, we label anything erotic as pornography,” Abramović said in a press statement. “Balkan Erotic Epic is the most ambitious work in my career. This gives me a chance to go back to my Slavic roots and culture, look back to ancient rituals and deal with sexuality, in relation to the universe and the unanswered questions of our existence."

She adds: "Through this project, I would like to show poetry, desperation, pain, hope, suffering, and reflect our own mortality.”

The audience is free to wander around at will, hopefully coming closer to answering the question: What are our bodies truly for? 

Check out some of the behind-the-scenes shots: 

“This new performance work offers an unmissable opportunity for audiences to experience the next chapter of [Abramović’s] creative life - bold, immersive, and on a scale that’s truly unprecedented,” said John McGrath, artistic director and chief executive of Factory International.

‘Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic’ is on at Aviva Studios in Manchester from 9 to 19 October, with a talk by Abramović on 11 October. Tickets and more information here.