Open AccessPerforming death: Marina Abramović’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas
Author(s) -
Francesco Marzano
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
acta universitatis lodziensis. folia litteraria polonica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2353-1908
pISSN - 1505-9057
DOI - 10.18778/1505-9057.59.10
Subject(s) - section (typography) , performing arts , serbian , realisation , opera , visual arts , representation (politics) , meditation , history , art , art history , computer science , philosophy , law , linguistics , political science , physics , operating system , archaeology , quantum mechanics , politics
This essay analyses the opera project 7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Marina Abramović, premiered in Munich in September, 2020. The first section reconstructs the role that the Greek soprano played in the life of the Serbian performer, bringing the latter to a gradual sense of self-identification. Then, the thirty-years-long development of the original concept of the video piece How to Die into the actual project through its various stages is taken into account, and the stage realisation of the work is described in detail. The third section focuses on the representation of death in Marina Abramović’s performances, while section four compares Callas and Abramović’s works and lives, and their status as iconic women. The last section retraces Abramović’s artistic path which has led her from her extreme and essential performances of the 1970s to her recent experimentations with other media and to her meditation on immaterial art.