Wednesday 3rd April 2024

Marina Abramović

Speaker: Helen Oakden

Helen Oakden gave a fascinating, sensitive and comprehensive lecture introducing us to Marina Abramovic.  Marina was a pioneer of performance art. Over her 50 year career she developed her work to reflect her changing perceptions of the world.  Helen looked at the question of whether performance art can outlive the performance itself.  Marina had a very harsh and severe childhood in Yugoslavia under Tito’s regime.  For the rest of her life she wanted to prove how resilient she was and collected her energy from the audience – the audience flow.  She worked for a few years with her partner and lover, the German artist –  Ulay S’he on many of their installations. When their relationship finished she continued working all over the world on installations and it was over 30 years before she saw Ulay again. She won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biannale. In her early works she was influenced by Marcel Duchamp. In 2023 the Royal Academy gave room for an exhibition of her work and it was the first time a female performance artist had been represented.

Helen was also the subject of ‘Desrt Island Disks’ in early 2024.

Here’s the link:
Desert Island Discs

Helen is the Head of the History of Art Department at St Mary’s School Ascot. She studied at Manchester University and achieved her Master’s Degree in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Based in London, she has previously worked for the Royal Academy and National Gallery, as well as leading specialised art history courses across Italy.

Click here for details of next month’s lecture.