Exhibition Review by Jacopo Cavini
6 May - 19 October 2026
Curated by Shai Batel and Marina Abramović.
Organised in collaboration with the Marina Abramović Institute and the Modern Art Museum Shanghai.
Fig. 1. Marina Abramović, Bovine bones from Balkan Baroque, 1997. Installation View, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy. Author’s photo.
The Venice Art Biennale has reached its sixty-first edition, remaining the main international stage for contemporary art throughout the transformational times in which we are living. Amongst the gallery displays and temporary installations being hosted by the Floating City this year, an exhibition dedicated to one of the pioneers of performance art stands out: Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy (May 6 to October 19), is the Gallerie dell'Accademia's first ever exposition dedicated to a living female artist.
Located in the historical gallery of the Accademia, the exhibition, curated by Shai Batel in close dialogue with Abramović herself, is meant as an homage to this giant of contemporary art, who turns eighty this year. Abramović's connection to the lagoon city began when she visited the Biennale in 1958, aged twelve. Thirty-nine years later, after developing her own harsher take on performance art, based on an unfiltered connection between performer and public, it was also in Venice that Abramović was officially recognised as the leading figure of the performance genre.
Fig. 2. Marina Abramović, Portal, 2024. Aluminium, steel, LED panels, electronic components, natural clear quartz. Installation View, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy. Author’s photo.
During the 1997 Biennale, while her homeland was being torn apart by civil wars, she enacted Balkan Baroque: a reprocessing of grief where the artist, seated on a pile of blood-soaked bovine bones, helplessly washes them for hours. The performance shook the art world and earned her the Golden Lion prize. At the entrance of the current exhibition, a video sequence played alongside the stack of bones (fig. 1) recalls this pivotal moment in the artist's career, setting high expectations for incoming visitors.
Nearby, a projection of The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk (1988) alludes to Abramović’s time in China, from which Transforming Energy derives a significant number of its themes. Abramović first became acquainted with the fundamentals of Chinese medicine during this joint performance with her then-partner Ulay (1943-2020), leading to a lifelong interest in the relationship between crystals, energetic fields, and the human body. Transforming Energy investigates this connection by encouraging the public to interact with the power of stones — specifically, large natural quartz crystals, which are present in almost all installations, becoming a kind of leitmotiv throughout the exhibition.
The first artwork encountered by the visitor is emblematic of the overall exhibition. Portal (2024) is a metal frame, surrounded by natural selenite crystals, the size of a watermelon, that are lit up from behind, recalling some sort of eerie light bulbs (fig. 2). The exhibit text provides “Instructions for the public: Stand inside the portal. Eyes closed. Motionless. Depart. Duration: limitless.” These labels are the same in almost all artworks presented — they simply invite visitors to stand in proximity to the crystals. Without any further explanation as to the intended effects or sensations, visitors are allowed complete freedom of interpretation.
Fig. 3. Marina Abramović, Bed for Human Use I, 2015. Wood and quartz crystal. Installation View, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy. Author’s photo.
The overall experience has a rather sacred feeling to it, due to the dim lighting, the silence, and the religious reverence towards the artist — the aura of Abramović's name is ever-present. During the exhibition's preview, visitors were even provided with a white lab coat and headphones, giving them the appearance of cult adepts, standing, perceiving, becoming themselves part of an installation cleverly crafted by the oracle of performance art. When I took part in the performance just few weeks later, both accessories were absent, creating a less severe and more approachable setting.
However, the initial novelty of the exhibition's theme and materials soon becomes a rather repetitive feature. Without an explanation of Abramović’s thought processes, installations seem to be little more than variations on a single theme — giant quartz crystals, lit from behind, acting as enigmatic contemplative "transitory objects" for the public to stand nearby. For instance, there is little experiential difference between Portal, Bed for human use I (fig. 3, 2015) where visitors are invited to lie on a wooden bed under the influence of a crystal looming over their head — and Black Dragon (fig. 4, 1990/2024) — where visitors are invited to "press head, heart and stomach against the mineral pillows" placed at various heights along the wall. Perhaps one benefit of this repetition is that those works which do not feature crystals immediately take on an exciting edge. For instance, As Slow As Possible (2024) invites visitors to sit in deck chairs, facing a series of metronomes which are set to such a slow rhythm that their unexpected ticking sounds like an explosion in the silent dark room.
One of the curators' aims was to establish a dialogue between Abramović's art and the masterpieces of the Venetian School of painting treasured in the Accademia. The result, though, feels more like a clash between drastically different art styles, materials, and mediums, from which the contemporary installation emerges as somewhat banal and useless. For example, when Shoes for Departure (1991-2024) are placed in front of The Feast in the House of Levi (1573) by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) – truly a feast for aesthetic perception — the public are not even able to access Abramović's work to wear the crystal shoes as intended (fig. 5).
Fig. 4. Marina Abramović, Black Dragon, 1990-2024. Quartz crystals, stones, metal brackets, Lucite plaques. Stones include rose quartz, blue quartz, clay quartz, green quartz, hematite, snowflake obsidian, clear quartz, smoked quartz, sodalite, chrysocolla, and amethyst quartz. Installation View, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy. Author’s photo.
One of the curators' aims was to establish a dialogue between Abramović's art and the masterpieces of the Venetian School of painting treasured in the Accademia. The result, though, feels more like a clash between drastically different art styles, materials, and mediums, from which the contemporary installation emerges as somewhat banal and useless. For example, when Shoes for Departure (1991-2024) are placed in front of The Feast in the House of Levi (1573) by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) – truly a feast for aesthetic perception — the public are not even able to access Abramović's work to wear the crystal shoes as intended (fig. 5).
Fig. 5. Marina Abramović, Shoes for Departure, 1991-2024. Yellow, white and green quartz.
Placed in front of: Paolo Caliari known as Veronese (1528-1588), The Feast in the House of Levi, 1573. Oil on canvas. Installation View, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy. Author’s photo.
The final feeling that one takes home after the visit is a lingering sense of disappointment — is this all the Accademia has to say about one of the most renowned artists worldwide? The focus seems to be overwhelmingly centred on the last years of her production, while the great performances that made her famous are barely hinted at, and not re-created by actors as one would expect. Imponderabilia (1977), originally announced as a key feature of the exhibition, received few, if any, restagings. Its absence was made particularly noticeable in the context of the sensation caused by the similarly controversial female performance artist, Florentina Holzinger, in the Austrian pavilion.
The rich discussions that Transforming Energy could have sparked, given Abramović's role in shaping what we consider to be art today, made this exhibition a potential show-stopper at this year's Biennale. Unfortunately, that opportunity was missed, leaving in its wake an unremarkable, Instagram-friendly version of Abramović's genre-defining production.
Jacopo Cavini obtained a Master in History of Art at the University of York in 2024, after an Architecture degree and a job in conservation in his country, Italy. His dissertation explored the role of digital social behaviours, quarantine confinements and recent wars in the production of some figurative painters, between the years 2020-2022. Jacopo is passionate about contemporary art as an expression of society’s tensions, and about the unexpected connections it creates with other areas.
