Marina Abramović 512 Hours (Monograph hand signed and inscribed by Marina Abramovic), 2014

Marina Abramović

512 Hours (Monograph hand signed and inscribed by Marina Abramovic), 2014

Hardback monograph (hand signed and inscribed 'much love')

Warmly signed and inscribed by Marina Abramovic on the title page

8 1/2 × 6 × 3/4 inches

Gorgeous hardback book with no dust jacket, as issued, was published by the Serpentine Gallery in London on the occasion of Abramovic's eponymous project 512 Hours. This book is hand signed and warmly inscribed 'much love' by Marina Abramovic on the title page.

About the Project:
512 Hours (2014) is taken from Abramović’s seminal exhibition with Serpentine Gallery in 2014. This work serves as an artefact, a testimony of the intangible experiences of those who participated, and the atmosphere of this performance that endured several weeks.

This was the first major performance by Abramović since her monumental piece The Artist is Present, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2010, in which visitors were invited to sit in silence opposite the artist and gaze into her eyes for an unspecified amount of time. Abramović performed this work every day for three months. The pared-down nature of this exhibition corresponded to Abramović’s interest in the historically well established relationship between art and ‘nothingness’; The idea of emptiness – of minimalism, reduction and simplicity, and has increasingly led to ‘more and more of less and less’ in Abramović’s work. It was this journey towards immateriality that led her to this unique moment in her work, where she committed to an unscripted and improvised performance in the gallery space.

A contemporaneous review of this exhibition in Britain's The Guardian newspaper said this:
..."The ultimate value of 512 Hours depends upon each visitor; that is both the challenge and the artist's get-out clause. Of course there are various experiences along the way – witnessing Abramovic's stupendous stamina up close; seeing your fellow beings turning inwards, or outwards, in unconscious response or its opposite, hot self-consciousness; doing it yourself in a pristine white gallery, participating in a cult event – but in essence, this is just an elaborate exercise in mindfulness.."

About the book:
Publisher: London : Serpentine Gallery, 2014.
125 pages : illustrations (some color)