Filmed in 2011, Marina Abramović prepares for her role in "The Life and Death of Marina Abramović", an opera based on her own life. Directed by Bob Wilson and featuring original music by Antony Hegarty, "The Life and Death of Marina Abramović" premiered at the Manchester International Festival in 2011 and traveled to New York City's Park Avenue Armory in 2013. In the film, Abramović takes one of her first ever singing lessons at the Manhattan studio of vocal coach Nora York. Abramović discusses her desire to become a better singer despite being told as a child that she "didn't have an ear for music."

A pioneer of performance as a visual art form, Marina Abramović uses her body as both subject and medium in performances that test physical, mental, and emotional limits—often pushing beyond them and even risking her life—in a quest for heightened consciousness, transcendence, and self-transformation. Characterized by repetitive behavior, actions of long duration, and intense public interactions, Abramović's work engages universal themes of life and death as recurring motifs, while drawing on the artist's personal biography and reflecting contemporary events.

Learn more about the artist at:
http://www.art21.org/artists/marina-abramovic

CREDITS: Producer: Ian Forster. Consulting Producers: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Charles Atlas. Camera: Paul Gibson. Sound: Mark Mandler. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Morgan Riles. Music Courtesy: Antony Hegarty. Photography Courtesy: Marina Abramović Archives & Robert Wilson. Special Thanks: Nora York. Theme Music: Peter Foley.

"Exclusive" is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; 21c Museum Hotel, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and by individual contributors.

"The Life and Death of Marina Abramović" at Park Avenue Armory, New York, December 13--20, 2013
http://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/LaDoMA