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Part diary, part sketchbook, and part esoteric blueprint, the legendary performance pioneer’s new illustrated volume opens up the intimate private archives behind her radical career.
For over fifty years, Marina Abramović has defined the outer limits of performance art, turning her own body into a site of profound vulnerability, physical endurance, and visceral psychological confrontation. From her harrowing 1970s experiments to her monumental 700-hour silent vigil at MoMA, her public persona has been forged in unyielding resilience. Now, celebrating her eightieth birthday, Abramović is pulling back the velvet curtain to reveal the inner machinery of her mind with her new illustrated book, Long Life, Short Stories.
Published by Rizzoli, the volume functions as a kaleidoscopic window into the artist’s private universe—merging original drawings, handwritten reflections, and intimate fragments exploring love, loss, sex, fear, ancestry, and even a dedicated chapter on dreams and ancient love spells.
Moving effortlessly between the profound and the eccentric, the book offers a crucial counterpoint to a career built on public risk and monumental scale. As she prepares to celebrate the release with an intimate conversation alongside Michèle Lamy at New York’s Rizzoli Bookstore, Abramović reminds us that true artistic freedom isn’t just found on the gallery floor—it is forged in the silent, private fragments of everyday life.
