Marina Abramović Residency
“I developed these workshops over 40 years of teaching, in order for my students to prepare for long durational performance. They provide a reset for the body and give a set of tools to manage the challenges of the mind. These skills are universal. The workshops are now open to anyone, in any discipline.”
— Marina Abramović
About Marina Abramović Institute
Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) presents and supports performance art at a global scale. Through an artist driven process, the Institute maintains both a multidisciplinary approach to performance and a focus on long durational work.
MAI seeks to address the complexity of the present time in order to shift awareness and consciousness of human beings through performance. The institute invites interdisciplinary collaboration and union between practitioners of all disciplines including art, science, technology, and spirituality.
In 2023, MAI opened its space in Karyes, Greece, to support creative processes around performance art and generate collaborative thinking. The Institute hosts Cleaning the House, a workshop developed by Abramović to reset the body and help understand one’s physical or mental limits. The workshops are open to public participants coming from any discipline.
Globally, the institute creates communal participatory projects that critically engage with time, place, and human experiences. To date, MAI has presented major performance projects in Sao Paulo (2015), Athens (2016), Kyiv (2017), Bangkok (2018), Istanbul (2020), Amsterdam (2022), London (2023), Adelaide (2024).
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
The Cleaning the House Workshop was developed by Abramovic during her years of teaching. Since the 1980s, she developed and led numerous Cleaning the House workshops for her students at Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in Hamburg, Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and later when she was a professor for Performance Art at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in Braunschweig, where she taught for seven years.
During the workshop, participants will be asked to refrain from eating or speaking to bring the body and mind to a quiet, calm state. Participants will be led through a series of long durational exercises to improve individual focus, stamina, and concentration.
When we are given the opportunity to be in nature, away from distractions, and to participate in this time-honed set of exercises and activities, it improves our focus, our determination, and our ability to generate new ideas. This type of preparation is described by Abramovic as a complete internal reset, essential not only for performers, as they approach their work but also for other practitioners and professionals across all disciplines.
