Transformation in the work of performance artist Marina Abramovic

Abstract

Is transformation a crucial element within the work of performance artist Marina Abramović? If it is so, how is it manifested in her work? The dissertation will analyse some perspectives of transformation in the work of Abramović‟, an artist who has always been fascinated by transformation. From a very young age she showed an ambition to develop her work further and breaking any boundaries of performance aesthetic and normative rules along the way. This impulse has lived with her till today and is still present in her works – perhaps today she is a bit subtler in her approach. The Online Oxford Dictionary defines transformation as „a marked change in form, nature, or appearance‟. This means that that the term „transformation‟ includes also a change which might be externally invisible but intrinsically present. This thesis will investigate both the visible and the less visible transformations in Abramović‟s work. Erika Fischer-Lichte, a performance theorist, wrote about the transformative processes within the work of both actors and performance artists. In my analysis I acknowledge Ficher-Lichte‟s and other performance theorists‟ argument that performance is potentially a field for transformation on many levels.