Marina Abramovic: White Space, Lisson Gallery

Marina  Abramović  + London 2014
In the summer of 2014 Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović reined art queen supreme in London. Taking up her first durational performance in the capital, 512 hours has seen Marina resident at the Serpentine Gallery, from opening to closing, 6 days a week from June to August. If this still wasn't enough time for you to catch her live work, fortunately the Lisson Gallery will be holding another show of this autumn which will delve deeper into her practice.
The Lisson show
Presenting pieces since the advent of her career in the early 1970s in Belgrade to more recent performances, the exhibition will also contain never before exhibited material. Featuring previously unseen video documentation and a number of newly discovered photographs from 1971-1975, the show provides insight into Abramović’s formative works dealing with the themes of time and the immaterial, which have once again become central to her current practice. 
Her practice
Abramović, quite simply, has become the doyenne of performance art. Her durational practice explores the limits of the body and the possibilities of the mind, pushing the threshold of physical and emotional endurance. Using her body both as subject and medium, she tests the relationship between the performer and audience as she subjects herself to pain, exhaustion and danger. 
Old risks new insights
The exhibition includes documentation of many interesting performances. Of particular note is the newly mastered and previously unseen version of Abramović’s seminal performance Rhythm 5 from 1975 captured by her brother Velmir. Footage shows Abramović losing consciousness as she lies down in the middle of the burning five-pointed star (symbolising the Yugoslav partisans) due to a lack of oxygen caused by the fire. A doctor and several members of the audience intervene only realising what has happened at a critical point when flames have almost reached her body. 
For Abramović fans, the previously unseen and earlier work will delight, for those less familiar with her practice, it’s a great way of understanding why Abramović has been described as one of the defining artists in performance art.