Marina Abramovic

I was lucky to get tickets to hear CEO of the Design Museum, Tim Marlow in conversation with the inimitable concept and performance artist, Marina Abramovic. Glamorous, witty and in charge of the conversation, Marina was a delight to be around.

The ease with which Marina converses about her work, her inspiration, her life, is something I hadn’t witnessed from someone with such a high profile. Marina spoke deeply about how important it was to her and for other artists to be without ego and pretensions. To hear her living this out in front of us was so authentic and warming it surprised me.

Marina has a new book out, filled with her scribbles and musings. Instead of being read cover to cover, she said it’s the type of book to open randomly on any page on any day which is the way I mostly read my book of Rumi poetry. Her notes and drawings are all on hotel stationary which she collected from her travels around the world.

I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down for this event but I left feeling like I had a crush on her. As a woman in her late seventies who works, travels, paints her nails and lips red, with her long, glossy, dyed Serbian hair, who laughs and creates and refuses to disappear, how could you not admire that?

Marina currently has a retrospective exhibition currently showing at the RSA.