0:00:18.090,0:00:20.704
[ Marina Abramović ] An artist's relation to solitude.

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An artist must make time for the long period[br]of solitude.

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Solitude is extremely important.

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Away from home, away from studio,

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away from family, away from friends.

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An artist has to understand silence.

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An artist has to create a space for silence[br]to enter his work.

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Silence is like an island

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in the middle of turbulent ocean.

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My physical endurance and the extreme willpower

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I think I got from my mother and my father,

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because my mother and my father,

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they really believe in the communism,

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and they believe in sacrifice for the cause.

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Your personal life was nothing.

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It's important what you are living for.

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It's just, like, very, very stoic and very[br]dedicated.

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That's how I was educated.

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My mother, when her water broke when she was[br]giving birth to me,

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she was having communist party meeting,

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and she didn't want to stop before she finished[br]it.

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And then she went to the hospital

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and give the birth to me.

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I was thinking this is normal.

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I was thinking this is how it was supposed[br]to be.

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I didn't think that everything else can be[br]different.

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Coming from former Yugoslavia,

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from the really interesting family background,

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which mother and father don't believe in any[br]kind of religion

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and being taken care of by my grandmother,

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who was completely religious fanatic,

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having, you know, grandfather

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who was a saint of the orthodox church,

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that was a kind of almost unbeatable combination

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to grow as an artist.

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Full of contradictions.

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Performance is a tool how i can express myself.

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And I think, in the life of an artist,

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it's very important to find the right tool.

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And I have to say that I was very lucky

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that it came so early to me, so clearly.

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Since I remember, I was always drawing everywhere.

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I start on the little, you know, papers

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and then i went to the walls

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and then the parents really understood

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that they should give me more papers

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and then I started doing the canvases

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and then in no time, I was painting.

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And with age 12, I had my first exhibition.

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I remember that my first period which I was[br]painting,

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it was something given to me already; it was[br]my dreams.

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I had very, very vivid dreams.

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Sometimes the dream was more than reality,

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and I will wake up, and reality will look[br]like the dream,

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and dream look like real thing.

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So the dreams was always being painted

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in a kind of blue and green.

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Just these two colors I had.

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And later on, I remember being very interested

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in truck accidents.

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I was crazy about communist big green trucks

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and how they're colliding.

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So I would go to the actually scenes of accidents[br]took place,

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take photographs, go back, and paint them.

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And then I was thinking,

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"Okay, but what if the big truck will be hit[br]by the little car,

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like a children car?"

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So I will go and buy little toys

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and I would put them on the highways

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and I waited the big truck, you know, smash[br]them.

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And what happened?

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This little toys was always being untouched

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by the big trucks.

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So I started going home and painting these[br]big trucks

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being smashed by these wonderful little innocent

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children trucks.

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And then after trucks, I get to new period[br]altogether,

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and I start paint the sky.

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And I was crazy about clouds.

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The clouds were coming, the shadows and the[br]clouds,

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and it kind of become a kind of mystical chemical

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kind of a dimension.

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And I remember so well that moment,

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and I think I was in my beginning of my 20s,

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lying on the grass field

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and looking to the sky. [br]Just plain blue sky.

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And in this plain blue sky,

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I saw the 12 ultrasonic airplanes passing[br]by

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and leaving this complete sharp line.

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I see in the front of my eyes, first, blue[br]sky,

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then the lines created by ultrasonic planes

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dissolve in the air into blue sky again.

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And I think it was, for me, like a spiritual[br]revelation.

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I remember stand up and I want immediately

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to go to the military headquarters

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and ask general there if they can borrow me

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12 ultrasonic planes to make the drawings[br]in the sky.

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My father was the general.

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Because they know my father, they immediately[br]called him

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and say, "Your daughter's completely crazy.

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get her out of here."

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"Do you know how much it costs to fly the[br]ultrasonic planes

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for her to make drawings in the sky?"

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So very early, understood that

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there is certain things I can't do.

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But in the same time, I got a revelation

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in this moment of looking to blue sky

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that actually I can use everything I want.

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I can use the water, the islands,

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the fire, the earth, the air, and myself.

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And this was the moment that I decided

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that it's completely ridiculous to go to the[br]studio

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and make something that is two-dimensional

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when I could have entire world there for me.

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And that's when I stopped painting.

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So after this huge revelation,

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actually what for me was very interesting

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is to start working with the sound.

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What was interesting me about the sound

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is to create sound environments where, you[br]know,

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you have one impression listening to the sound

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but visually, completely another impression.

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So the first idea I had, it was to put the[br]speakers

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on the bridge, of the main bridge in Belgrade,

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with the sound of bridge collapsing.

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So when you're on the bridge itself,

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with every three minutes, the bridge is falling[br]down

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but, visually, it's not.

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And of course to do such action, you need[br]to get permission

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from the city mayor.

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So i went to the city mayor house.

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Again, happened the same thing,

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they absolutely forbid to do this,

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because they told me that, actually, from[br]the vibrations

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with that kind of sound, the bridge can really[br]fall down.

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So I could not do it.

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Then I did it with the building where I was[br]living,

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but it was only for ten minutes the whole[br]piece,

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because the people, inhabitants, were just[br]running out

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thinking that everything's bombed.

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So that was kind of big mess.

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Somehow dealing with the sound, I come to[br]the point

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when I had my first performance "Rhythm 10,"

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which actually used the knives.

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And the "Rhythm 10" is a sound piece, again.

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I have the, you know, tape recorders

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and I was doing certain game twice.

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When it was my body involved.

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And the moment when I involved my body in[br]the performance,

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this incredible energy dialogue was established[br]with the public.

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It was so overwhelming

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that I could not ever come back to any other[br]form of art.

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In the beginning, in my early work with performance,

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I really embraced repetition.

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It was to repeat certain action over and over[br]again

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to come to the kind of almost charismatic[br]state of mind.

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And the performances in the beginning,

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quite violent and very tough.

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You know, like run into the wall

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or breaking the walls,

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cutting the stars in the stomach,

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lying on the ice, beating yourself

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to see how far, physically, you can go

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and transcendent, actually, the painful experience

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into something else.

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Later on, the more and more performance I[br]develop,

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I become more and more interested

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in mental state of piece

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and then extend the time.

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The longer performance gets,

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the more transcendental can get

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and transformative to the performer doing[br]it,

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but also to public participating.

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So this is the actually, the door

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of something completely else.

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How you can elevate human spirit.

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As you see around us, our life is so short[br]and so fast.

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Mine, I have no time for anything.

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So the longer I do performance, the better[br]things get.

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I think that art should go longer and longer

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as life becomes shorter and shorter.

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When you die, you can't take your physical[br]goods with you,

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but a good idea can stay.

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I am very occupied now about my legacy.

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It's very important for me, preservation performance[br]art

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and how they're going to develop

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and what is the future of performance art.

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Three years ago, for my own birthday,

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I purchased a building in Hudson.

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It's a very large space.

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We can host about 1,500 people.

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I was interesting to create situation

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which will be really center for preservation

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for performance art,

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but also to commission the young artists

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and very known artists to make long duration

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of performance work.

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But not just performance I'm doing,

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but also the theater, the music, the video,

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the dance, the opera.

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Just long duration.

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I'm developing system that you never leave[br]the space.

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I wanted to create some kind of situation

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where you have the seats,

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after maybe three hours you're really tired,

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the seat reclining to little bed.

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You have a little blanket.

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You cover yourself.

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You go to sleep.

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You wake up, piece is going on.

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On the left side is a cold drink

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inside the chair arm.

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And the other side is hot meal.

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A little lamp if you want to write the notes.

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So that you're really inside the pce for a[br]long period of time.

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I've really been thinking so much,

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you know, what is the role of an artist?

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What is my function on this earth anyway?

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I think that being an artist is such a huge[br]responsibility.

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In my case, I create three groups of the attitudes,

0:14:06.890,0:14:08.774
what i have to do as an artist.

0:14:09.970,0:14:12.779
I called the first group is artist's body.

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And just very simple; is me performing

0:14:14.680,0:14:16.137
in the front of audience.

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Second is the public body, is to create objects

0:14:23.339,0:14:26.100
I call them transitory because they're not[br]sculptures

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and circumstances which the public can actually

0:14:28.480,0:14:31.900
perform for themselves and get experience.

0:14:36.329,0:14:39.430
And the third, it will be student body.

0:14:39.430,0:14:41.720
And this is my function as a teacher,

0:14:41.720,0:14:44.959
that actually when you come to one point of[br]your life,

0:14:44.959,0:14:47.279
that you really have to unconditionally

0:14:47.279,0:14:48.339
transfer the knowledge

0:14:48.339,0:14:50.464
to younger generation of artist.

0:14:51.195,0:14:52.220
And not only transfer it

0:14:52.220,0:14:54.370
but also help them in the development.

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It's a really, in a way, some kind of fair[br]dialogue,

0:14:58.040,0:15:00.750
because they give you sense of time you live[br]in

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because they're young

0:15:01.528,0:15:03.658
and they understand differently the world,

0:15:03.769,0:15:05.432
and you give them the experience.

0:15:29.168,0:15:31.377
You can't decide when you're going to die,

0:15:31.377,0:15:33.867
but you definitely can rehearse your funeral.

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With a lawyer, I actually made my testament

0:15:38.670,0:15:43.805
which my real wish about my funeral is to[br]be three coffins,

0:15:45.621,0:15:48.652
one with real Marina and two fake Marinas.

0:15:49.759,0:15:50.870
And they're going to be buried

0:15:50.870,0:15:52.510
in three different places in the world,

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which I lived the longest.

0:15:54.104,0:15:58.364
Means Belgrade, in ex-Yugoslavia, now Serbia;

0:15:58.519,0:16:00.876
Amsterdam, in Holland;

0:16:01.585,0:16:04.494
and New York, which I live right now.

0:16:04.893,0:16:07.556
They will be simultaneous burying.

0:16:08.619,0:16:11.750
In all of these funerals, people will not[br]wear any black

0:16:11.750,0:16:16.089
but really bright clothes, like green or red[br]and pink

0:16:16.089,0:16:18.579
and acid yellow and so on.

0:16:18.579,0:16:21.255
And it will be very festive situation.

0:16:25.440,0:16:28.030
And really, idea: you know, you live well;

0:16:28.030,0:16:30.000
you have to die well too.

0:16:48.208,0:16:50.899
An artist should look deep inside themselves

0:16:50.899,0:16:52.545
for inspiration.

0:16:56.110,0:16:58.569
The deeper they look inside themselves,

0:16:58.569,0:17:00.722
the more universal they become.

0:17:06.000,0:17:08.184
The artist is universe.

0:17:11.262,0:17:13.494
The artist is universe.

0:17:21.709,0:17:23.879
The artist is universe.

0:17:52.820,0:17:56.049
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0:17:56.049,0:17:58.310
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0:17:58.310,0:18:03.063
please visit us online at: PBS.org/art21

0:18:06.385,0:18:10.419
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0:18:10.419,0:18:13.062
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0:18:13.062,0:18:16.930
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0:18:16.930,0:18:22.774
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