Sex, life and death — in a new perfomace by legendary artist Marina Abramović

5 Feb 2026

Olya Lukianova

Marina Abramović, a long-standing and undisputed legend of performance art, brought her new production entitled Balkan Erotic Epic, to Barcelona. It is dedicated to the body — its memory of recent and forgotten historical events, its ability to reproduce, its desire for life and fertility, as well as death, both close and completely foreign. Rejecting contemporary notions of indecency, Abramović reminds the viewer what it is like to feel one's body again in an era of progress and established social norms. La Cotorra tells how it was.

Marina Abramović calls Balkan Erotic Epic the most ambitious work of her career. It premiered in 2025 in Manchester, England, where they built what was almost a small town for the performance. Barcelona was next in line — for five days at the end of January 2026, the production could be seen on the stage of one of Spain's most major theatres, the Liceu.

Balkan Erotic Epic is clearly multidisciplinary — the action takes place on the theatre stage, but it is not a theatrical play in the general sense. It unfolds within frequently changing, meticulously designed sets, partly against a backdrop of video sketches, which duplicate what is happening on stage or replace what cannot be depicted on stage, and also includes dance, song, narrative and performative elements.

Balkan Erotic Epic begins not on stage, but in the theatre foye where the audience is greeted by an orchestra accompanied by the strict mother of the artist Danica Abramović, whose military bearing is both frightening and, as is often the case with frightening things, eye-catching (this is probably the most noticeable role in the entire production, which lacks a unified narrative line).

After spending some time outside the hall, the orchestra finally enters the theatre's main stage, where the funeral of Josip Broz Tito, the long-time president of Yugoslavia, is taking place. Shortly after his death, Yugoslavia ceased to exist and plunged into an incredibly brutal war that lasted for many years. His portrait and suit hang on the stage. Danica places a bouquet of red carnations next to Tito's portrait. At this moment, we see professional mourners on the screen, women in black headscarves and dresses, rhythmically beating their chests.

The figure of the mother is central to this performance, as it is to almost any discussion of the subconscious and the physical.

Danica Abramović was a communist, a partisan heroine during World War II (she was credited with saving dozens of lives), an army major and director of the Museum of Revolution and Art in Belgrade. Marina Abramović and Balkan Erotic Epic have repeatedly spoken about her incredible strictness and conservatism in raising children — for example, until the age of 29, the artist had to return home no later than 10 p.m.

It is difficult to imagine that a woman of such a temperament would not only refrain from suppressing any nascent interest in corporeality in her children, but would herself have any connection to sexuality at all. This feeling, however, soon ends — at some point, the action of Balkan Erotic Epic moves to a kafana, a Balkan tavern, where Danica, dancing on the table, gradually takes off her strict jacket with medals hanging on it and her long grey pencil skirt, loosens her tightly gathered hair and remains only in a satin shirt. In this state, she is guided by two drunk men — a little earlier, they tried to help her undress, for which they immediately received a slap from her. Watching the dishevelled, heated and out-of-control Danica, one inevitably thinks that she personifies the country in its difficult periods of life.