MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ
From 10 October 2025

ALBERTINA MODERN, VIENNA
Marina Abramović (born 1946 in Belgrade) is one of the most eminent contemporary artists. Considered the founder of modern performance art, she has written art history with her legendary appearances. From her beginnings in the Belgrade of the 1970s, she has, over the course of a career spanning more than fifty years, firmly established performance as a genre of visual art. Already in 1978, she had her first appearance in Vienna at the International Performance Festival. The exhibition, curated in cooperation with Kunstforum Wien, will offer a comprehensive overview of the artist’s oeuvre. The focus of the presentation at the Albertina Modern will be on reenactments of the historical performances, which will be shown daily throughout the exhibition. Performance art has a long tradition in Vienna, with Actionism as its best-known manifestation.
Marina Abramović’s early performance series Rhythm combined concept with physicality, endurance with empathy, complicity with loss of control, passivity with danger. Already it was about time, silence, energy, and the heightened awareness evoked by long-duration performances—themes that run through Abramović’s entire oeuvre. To her, the body was both subject and medium. By exposing herself to pain, total exhaustion, and danger, she kept pushing her physical and psychological limits, always in quest of emotional and spiritual transformation.


From 1976 to 1988, she performed together with her life partner Ulay (1943–2020). Since then, she has created solo works that involve more interaction with the audience, objects that invite participation, and performances such as The Artist Is Present, in which she gave visitors an opportunity to take turns sitting across from her at a table for one minute of silence each, eight hours a day for almost three months at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2010. This performance finally made her known to a wide public.
For the retrospective, the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien will, in a collaborative exhibition design created with the artist, set up rooms that are each dedicated to a specific theme such as participation, communism, body limits, energy from nature, or enlightenment. Exhibits on display there will include early works created in Belgrade, the first solo performances, her collaboration with Ulay and the legendary joint performances, the participation-inviting Transitory Objects for Human Use, which marked the beginning of her second solo career, the spectacular Balkan Baroqueperformance, for which she received a Golden Lion at the 1997 Venice Biennale, as well as more recent video and sculptural works. In addition, her installation Four Crosses (2019) will be shown in the nearby St. Rupert’s Church.
The exhibition is a cooperation between the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Kunsthaus Zürich, Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, and the Albertina Museum, Vienna. It is created in close collaboration with the artist.
Organized by the Kunstforum Wien and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in cooperation with the Albertina, Vienna, the exhibition is on view at Albertina Modern from 10 October 2025 to 1 March 2026.
EXHIBITION PROGRAM
Exclusive Special Opening
Discover the exhibition outside the regular opening hours with guaranteed admission and no long waiting time during your chosen time slot.
Book time slot
Public guided tours (in German)
Learn about highlights and backgrounds of the exhibition in a one-hour guided tour of the exhibition.
Dates & tickets
- Disclaimer | Trigger warning: violence, self-harm, nudity, light stimuli
- This exhibition features artistic works and performances that may provoke physical and psychological reactions. Videos may be problematic for people who are sensitive to light or who suffer from epilepsy or hyperacusis.
- Among other things, depictions of violence and self-harm are shown and performances with naked people take place. If you find this offensive, we recommend that you refrain from visiting.
- We recommend that visitors be 16 years of age or older.
- Filming and photographing the performances is expressly prohibited, as it also violates the artists' personal rights. Violations may result in legal action by the persons depicted.
- Information | FAQ
- Tickets for regular admission during opening hours (daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) are available as usual at the ticket offices on site and in our online shop.
- Due to high visitor numbers, there may be longer waiting times. We will of course endeavor to keep these as short as possible. We thank you for your understanding and look forward to your visit.
- Coats, jackets, and bags must be checked in the cloakroom without exception – please allow time for this. Last admission is at 5 p.m. daily.
- Performances take place at irregular times during opening hours.
- The ALBERTINA MODERN is open on December 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on December 31 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- External guides are not permitted to give tours of the exhibition.
- Private tours take place exclusively outside of opening hours. Please contact us directly for more information:
- FAQ Exclusive special opening | Saturday to Tuesday
Visiting time outside regular opening hours with guaranteed admission and reserved time slot. Price: EUR 25 per person, including access to the exhibition at the specified time slot without long waiting times.
- The offer is currently valid in October and November from Saturday to Tuesday between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
- Bookings can only be made via the online shop. It is currently not possible to book on site at the ticket office for the exclusive special opening.
- Coats, jackets, and bags must be left in the cloakroom without exception – please allow time for this.
The Bundesmuseen Card and the Friends of the Albertina Museum Annual Pass allow admission during regular opening hours as usual. However, they are not valid for the special opening from 6 p.m. Participation is only possible with a ticket for the exclusive special opening (available here) and the booking of the associated time slot.