The performance art of Marina Abramovic seen as spiritual practice

Over the past five decades, Marina Abramovi? (born 1946) has developed an undogmatic, individual approach to the transcendent, expanding extant European religious and mystical traditions by adding elements of shamanism, alchemy and Buddhism. Abramovic's exhibition in the Kunsthalle Tübingen--curated by Nicole Fritz in close collaboration with Marina Abramovic and her studio--is the first to be devoted to the spiritual aspects of the artist's work. Alongside documentation from a selection of her major works, this accompanying catalog brings together interdisciplinary essays, authored by a range of experts, which provide new insights into the artist's work, envisaging it as a form of spiritual exercise at once personal and public, which can be taught to others. To the latter end, in 2007, she founded the Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI), a non-profit foundation for performance art.