A powerful ritual exploring Balkan myths, eroticism, death and unbridled vitality

Ruhrtriennale presents Balkan Erotic Epic, a daring large-scale four-hour spectacular performance conceived and directed by Marina Abramović, the world’s most influential performance artist.  

Marina Abramović says: 

‘I was born in the Balkan. As a child, I have been exposed to many spiritual rituals in the house of my grandmother which left me with deep and lasting impressions that continue to shape the way I see the world today.

In the past, for so many ancient cultures, procreation and life itself were based on numerous ceremonies aimed at creating an understanding of our existence. By rediscovering this forgotten past, I would like to create a new understanding and context for the public today.’ 

Balkan Erotic Epic is an immersive experience that draws on ancient Balkan myths and Abramović’s unmistakably very personal, unique and direct performance language. 

Audiences move freely through 13 evolving scenes where performers, songs, movement and moments of ceremony form a unity. 

Abramović explores eroticism, spirituality and ritual in this work combining performance, dance and traditional throat singing to explore and enact the eroticism embedded in Balkan mythology. 

It brings together a fevered ritual where men writhe against the ground in a call for fertility, women gesticulating over graves to awaken the earth, and others baring themselves to the sky to banish impending storms. Unfolding as a threshold experience in which body, myth, culture, memory, and eroticism are interwoven, it allows you to step beyond your usual frame of reference. 

Fierce, intimate and ultimately transcendent, Abramović’s most ambitious project to date aims ‘to rediscover the past and our present selves through it’. 

Commissioned by Ruhrtriennale; Factory International, Manchester; Berliner Festspiele; Gran Theatre del Liceu; Park Avenue Armory; Les Théâtres de La Ville, Luxembourg; and WestK, Hong Kong.

Produced by Factory International, Manchester.

With the kind support of the Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Ruhrtriennale e. V.