The eight songs Marina Abramović couldn’t live without
A consistent theme in Marina Abramović’s life has been survival. In her life and art, it has presented itself almost like a challenge to be explored. Sometimes, it involved feminist commentary, like in the infamous Rhythm 0 performance piece, and other times, like her recent three-month stint in a forest in total solitude, it was for personal growth.
Abramović once advised that the ego can be the greatest obstacle to creative work and set about dismantling concepts and self in every facet of her life. The artist, who has often been involved in the music world, having collaborated with Lady Gaga and Jay-Z, uses music to connect with herself and stir inspiration.
During an appearance on Desert Island Discs, Abramović touched on the eight songs that followed her throughout her art career. It’s a dizzying mix of 1940s pop, R&B and classical music, with the clashing genres creating parallels to Abramović’s life. She has previously spoken to High Profiles about how her reputation as a provocative artist often means people think she is incredibly serious.
“People who have only seen my work cannot believe how I am in private life, and people who have only seen me in private life cannot believe the kind of work I’m doing, so it’s a contradiction,” Abramović explained. “And that contradiction is one of the things I am exposing in my work because all of us have it, and if you really show your vulnerability and expose things you are ashamed of especially, you create a different communication based on trust.”
The inclusion of Wolfgang Mozart on her choice playlist is also a deeply personal selection, given that as she began her burgeoning art career, she was comparing herself to him, a potential sign of the ego she’d spend a career wrangling: “I had my first show at 12 years [old] – I was very jealous of Mozart because he started at seven,” she said.
In her later shows, music and her own voice formed the building blocks of art pieces, such as Freeing the Body and Freeing the Voice. Aside from the predominant classical tracks, Abramović’s eight musical selections are varied, and all speak to the endless reach of her style as an artist. Her own forays into the music world tell much the same story.
In 2013, a contentious collaboration with Jay-Z saw her put in front of a new audience as part of his ‘Picasso Baby’ video. Again, contradictions arise because she so often rallied against commercialism that becoming a pop music accessory seems to jar with her core message. She simply called it a “side-effect of success” that she wasn’t attached to. At the very least, Abramović, who is now flogging a skincare line, cannot be accused of doing what everyone has come to expect her to.
Marina Abramović’s favourite songs:
- ‘Aria’ (from The Goldberg Variations) -Johann Sebastian Bach
- ‘Norma, Act 1: Casta diva’ – Maria Callas and Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
- ‘4 Degrees’ – Anohni
- ‘Paloma Negra’ – Chavela Vargas
- ‘Private Dancer’ – Tina Turner
- ‘Sherab Nyingpo Mantra (The Heart Sutra)’ – Tashi Lhumpo Monks
- ‘Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major’ – Mozart
- ‘Rum And Coca-Cola’ – The Andrews Sisters
