On the Walls: Memories of Marina Abramovic

"I had experienced absolute freedom - I had felt that my body had no boundaries, was limitless. That pain didn't matter, that absolutely nothing mattered. And that was exhilarating."

With an unparalleled artistic career, Marina Abramović overcomes fear, pain, exhaustion, and danger to create performances that connect the limits of the body with the possibilities of the mind. And, to celebrate 50 years of groundbreaking performances, Marina has demonstrated more than once that she is truly a force of nature: in 2010, she held a retrospective of her work and an unprecedented performance at the MoMA, with a line of over 750,000 people.

The daughter of communist parents, raised in a rigid and unforgiving culture typical of post-war Yugoslavia, she was under her mother's abusive control even as her career began to take off worldwide—for example, she obeyed the 10 p.m. curfew. Nothing, however, could contain, not for long, her insatiable curiosity, her desire to connect with people, or her indelible Balkan sense of humor—all of which characterize her art.

The beating heart of Pelas paredes is a dramatic love story: a twelve-year partnership with fellow performer and provocateur, Ulay, much of that time spent traveling penniless across Europe—a turbulent relationship that would end at the Great Wall of China.

Marina Abramović's story – sometimes epic, sometimes austere – can perhaps only be understood through a delve into her artistic career, which pushed her body beyond the limits of fear, pain, exhaustion and danger, in an avowed search for emotional and spiritual transformation.
That's what this book proposes.