Marina Abramović interview at launch of first NFT – ARTnews.com

World-renowned performance artist Marina Abramović launches her first NFT ever later this week, by The hero (2001), one of her most personal performances.

In the original piece, Abramović sat on a white horse, with a white flag waving gracefully in the wind, set against a vast landscape of trees and sky in Spain. The play, released as a film, was a tribute to her then recently deceased father, who was a Yugoslav hero during World War II.

Abramović, who was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1946, is now revisiting that work in collaboration with The Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Art (CIRCA) in London. The film will be shown from June 13 to August 13 on a network of screens ranging from Piccadilly Lights in London and Times Square in New York, all the way to COEX K-Pop Square in Seoul, South Korea.

The artist has also written The manifesto of the heroesa reconceptualization of her An artist’s life manifesto from 2011. The new manifesto has been described as a response to the urgent need for heroism over artistry in today’s world.

Abramovićs NFT av The hero (2001) will be launched on Tezos, a proof-of-stake blockchain that is considered to be more environmentally friendly and less energy-intensive than others. She will announce details of her first NFT during a conversation with CIRCA’s artistic director Josef O’Connor at Art Basel on 18 June.

To find out more about Abramović’s recent explorations of the form and form of heroism of our time, especially through NFTs, ART news talked to the artist via email:

ART news: This coming week you will announce details of your first ever NFT, The hero (2001), during a live panel discussion at Art Basel in Basel. Why did you decide to explore this seemingly divisive yet popular technology? In addition, how do NFTs relate to this specific performance artwork?

Marina Abramović: We never set out to make an NFT – it came as a surprise. The hero was originally filmed in PAL (square format), so we did a lot of finishing work to fill the screen in Piccadilly Circus with this beautiful landscape. It took months to edit each frame because I wanted the image to envelop the audience. I think ideas must come as a surprise – frame by frame, something new emerged from the silence.

We discovered how the movement of the flag in the wind gained a new beauty and significance with each frame. No two frames were alike. The wind, the flag – they danced together, moving like a breathing organism. From one work we now give birth to thousands of unique NFTs. This is very modern. This is a very Aquarius time.

Earlier this year, in a Verge interview, when asked about NFTs, you replied that even though you loved everything new, with this medium, you did not see any good ideas or good content. At the time, you said that you only see everyone talking about the money they can make on NFTs and that you have never made art for the money. What has changed meaning since then?

I filmed The hero in 2001 when no one had smartphones and social media did not exist. Twenty years later we live in this new world, and I find myself experimenting with how I could express this old work in a new medium. I asked myself how I could communicate with this younger generation who may not even be alive when The hero was first created. You have to think about the future when you make art. Art must look ahead.

I have read about Web3 and what the new generation is doing in this area. It is undoubtedly the future. I can barely write an email, and they collect millions to help people and save the rainforest. They are heroes. They are groundbreaking in a way that is similar to how I pushed boundaries in the 70’s with my performance art. Everyone called me crazy. Very few people believed in what I was doing at the time.

It is also important to me that these NFTs were affordable and environmentally friendly. The idea I have developed with CIRCA is a performance on Tezo’s blockchain. Like all my previous performances, there is an element of risk involved, and that the risk is centered around the audience. Experimentation means entering a territory where you have never been, where mistakes are very possible. How do you know you are going to succeed? Having the courage to face the unknown is so important. An artist should never stop taking risks, even when they are 75.

You explored the notion of heroes in Helten (2001). Why did you choose to go back to this idea and focus on it at this point?

I believe that every work I make has many lives. The hero (2001) was originally dedicated to my father who was a World War II hero in Yugoslavia, so when Joseph invited me to participate in CIRCA 2022, I immediately thought of this work.

Right now we need hardcore pics and the picture of The hero (2001) on the horse is a very strong image. (Because) right now we are really facing the third world nuclear war. I mean, we are. I do not think anyone, except those from my part of the world, knows how Putin works. He can not be seen as weak. His ego is like the Himalayas. He has the weapons that America does not have, and if they put him in the corner, he will use it because he does not care.

There is a very great danger where we are now. So this is the moment we visit this white horse, this white flag. We have beautiful land ahead of us, and it is the hero who can save us. Only the hero can save us! Someone who sacrifices everything.

Both NFT and three months of screening The hero In cities around the world, they present very evocative images of you sitting on a white horse in a steadfast manner, waving a flag and looking into the distance with a high gaze. Why did you choose to broadcast this image to the world?

The most important thing to realize is that this is a picture of a woman on a horse. Not a man on horseback. This image will appear every day around the world for three months. That in itself is radical. And you know, His Holiness the Dalai Lama once said that he’s not going to reincarnate as a man, but as a woman. Finally! Because of this different type of energy.

I truly believe that artists are the servants of society who have a duty to convey certain messages. How many artists showed the atrocities of World War II? The reflections of reality? Throughout the four years of the entire war, from 1940 to 1944, Matisse painted only flowers. For me, it’s amazing. The idea that he was actually talking about beauty.

For CIRCA 2022 we present this picture of a horse, his hair is in the wind. The flag is in the wind. It is this quiet landscape. The hero “looks forward” and I recite a new manifesto that I wrote here in India. There is something so positive in this work that I wanted to share with the world today. It is the image that is better than showing some horror.

How did it feel to perform such a heroic ideal in The hero at the beginning of the century? What do you hope viewers around the world bring with them from your performance?

The world was very different in 2001 when I first filmed The hero, directed by Jimena Blasquez Abascal. We traveled to Spain to the Montenmedio Contemporary Foundation, also known as the NMAC Foundation. It was only a few weeks before 9/11, when everything changed. In retrospect, I wonder if perhaps this work captured that moment of silence before the storm.

There is an incredible power in the silence, and I hope that this lasting presentation inspires people all over the world to take a break and reconsider their courage. Thinking about how they themselves can act, even when it may seem hopeless. This is the basic idea. Right now we need heroes. Smaller artists, but more heroes.

Speaking of the future, what kind of impact do you hope to create from your first NFT fall?

Instead of donating a percentage of the money to charity, I want to donate to a group of people who work in this new area and who I believe in. If we succeed in building this new community, I’m excited to see what opportunities exist later.

I think the next step is to look even deeper. It’s about finding solutions to the ongoing disaster and who can bring the solution? The heroes. Those who sacrifice everything. Those who bring the new light to illuminate this world. If I were to start today, this is what I would do. What Nadya Tolokonnikova achieved in March – raising $ 6.7 million for Ukraine’s relief efforts – is incredible.

I want to see what other ideas people have in this Web3 space to save the planet. The grants we will distribute from The Hero NFT project are my little way to contribute to this future.