Though she is nearing 80 years old, legendary performance artist Marina Abramović has no plans to slow down. In fact, this month she is set to premiere what she believes is her “most ambitious” performance yet for Factory International in Manchester. is a contemporary take on ancient traditions that explores the tension between spirituality and sexuality, one that features no less than 70 performers.
Though little has yet been revealed about the highly-anticipated show, Abramović has released behind-the-scenes images from rehearsals.
From Marina Abramović’s Balk Erotic Epic (2025) for Factory International in Manchester. Photo: © Marco Anelli.
Born in former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, in 1946, Abramović has drawn on her Balkan heritage to re-examine ancient folkloric rituals and beliefs in a mega four-hour, 13-part performance of dance and live music. But the epic doesn’t stop at elaborate costumes and complex choreographies; further pre-filmed scenes will be transmitted via surrounding screens. Throughout, we will come to understand the erotic not as something taboo but as an energizing life source.
Audiences are free to navigate the space as they wish, but are warned that performances may turn “intimate” or “feverish,” with graphic scenes, full nudity, and simulated acts. If this sounds potentially uncomfortable, that’s the point. Abramović is staying true to form in confronting viewers with the full scope and intensity of human experience. Over four hours, it may even feel like something of an assault on the senses.
Rehearsal of “Tito’s Funeral” from Marina Abramović’s Balk Erotic Epic (2025) for Factory International in Manchester. Photo: © Marco Anelli.
“Through this project, I would like to show poetry, desperation, pain, hope, suffering, and reflect our own mortality,” the artist said. She is certainly no stranger to grueling performances designed to push her to her limits. These include having a bow and arrow aimed at her heart, passing out as she lay at the center of a burning star-shaped wooden frame, and walking halfway along the Great Wall of China to meet, and break up, with her ex-partner Ulay.
“In our culture today, we label anything erotic as pornography,” she added. “This gives me a chance to go back to my Slavic roots and culture, look back to ancient rituals and deal with sexuality, in relationship to the universe and the unanswered questions of our existence.”
Rehearsal of “Orgy” from Marina Abramović’s Balk Erotic Epic (2025) for Factory International in Manchester. Photo: © Marco Anelli.
No mean feat! And one that will be achieved by all manner of acts, from a giant orgy to dancing skeletons and a “mushroom garden” populated by fake phalluses. The reasoning behind this flagrant lack of modesty is Abramović’s finding that, in Balkan culture, many rituals have centered around genitalia. It was a topic that first began to interest her during the making of her 2005 film , which similarly focuses on ceremonial acts performed in the nude.
Some of the traditional rites that are being revived include the dressing of a naked corpse, men penetrating the soil to improve its fertility, and a pregnant woman being soaked in milk. These scenes will, Abramović believes, connect us to the history of humanity, revealing to us the same hopes and anxieties that we feel today.
Research of “Tito’s Funeral” from Marina Abramović’s Balk Erotic Epic (2025) for Factory International in Manchester. Photo: © Marco Anelli.
Though she has long been one of the art world’s most talked about celebrities, Marina Abramović is having something of a moment this fall. Just last week, she threw a well-attended rave at Saatchi Yates in central London that had queues curling around the block. A sweeping retrospective has just opened at the Albertina in Vienna and a second was recently announced by the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice, set to run during next year’s Biennale. Abramović is the first living woman artist to receive the honor.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
