The big problem of our modern society is that we feel that we are separated from the nature. But it’s just the opposite. We are interrelated and our DNA is the same. And only when human beings understand that, the nature will not be obstacle. – Marina Abramovic
In real life, you just work for the ordinary self, but in the front of audience you become the superself. That’s a completely different thing. – Marina Abramovic
It’s very important that young artists push boundaries, because sometimes you have this urge to do something – like the impulsive and dangerous urges I had as a child – and if you don’t follow through with it you might miss out on a developmental experience. – Marina Abramovic
I am only interested in the ideas that become obsessive and make me feel uneasy. The ideas that I’m afraid of. – Marina Abramovic
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. – Marina Abramovic
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.’ – Marina Abramovic
I’m interested in utopian communities of the past. Many of them didn’t survive and I’m examining closely the reasons they failed. – Marina Abramovic
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.’ – Marina Abramovic
When I was 14, I thought I looked terrible. I wore these typical Slavic shoes with metal bottoms so you could always hear me coming and this really ugly princess skirt and blouse with the top button closed. I had a boy haircut, a baby face covered with pimples, and a really big nose. – Marina Abramovic
Most of the time, the artists are not supposed to wear the fashion. It is always seen as a vanity. But I think I don’t need to prove anything in my life. I can honestly say I love fashion and I can be many things at the same time. – Marina Abramovic
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. – Marina Abramovic
To really change the way society thinks, you have to give your entire being to it until there’s nothing left. – Marina Abramovic
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. – Marina Abramovic
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. – Marina Abramovic
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. – Marina Abramovic
For me, performance is a holy ground. When I perform, I really step into a different state of consciousness. – Marina Abramovic
We always project into the future or reflect in the past, but we are so little in the present. – Marina Abramovic
I hate kitchens. I don’t understand these enormous American kitchens that take up half the living room and then they just order pizza. – Marina Abramovic
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. – Marina Abramovic