Artist and director Marina Abramović presents her most ambitious work yet with this stunning four-hour immersive experience that draws upon her Slavic roots and culture to explore the eroticism, spirituality and traditions of her homeland.
A brass band leads us up into the hall where we witness a funeral lament for Josip Broz Tito, former Communist leader of Yugoslavia, before a further twelve visceral scenes are revealed around us, with audiences free to choose their own path.
Magic Potions questions what is myth and what is history whilst Fucking the Ground/Fertility Rites and Scaring the Gods to Stop the Rain both explore ancient ritual performances designed to pre-empt crop failure.
Ancestor’s Dance presents a typical winter scene where performers in traditional Balkan costume ward off evil curses, whilst Massaging the Breast/Orgy reflects women of all ages mourning the loss of their husbands to war, disease, labour, age. Whereas Knife Dance confronts us with women who are sworn to a life of chastity and to play the role of a man in their family.
The Kafana Complex is a Balkan-style café bar with musical performances that range from celebration to mournful, whilst separately across the roof we are presented with Deaf Dance, a traditional circle dance, typically performed at social, cultural, and religious ceremonies. Nearby, Black Wedding presents the funeral lament with a traditional dance routine from Eastern Serbia that takes place when a young, unmarried man dies and he is symbolically married to a young woman.
Sunbathing the Corpse reflects the practice of re-opening graves and exalting the body before burying them again, whilst Slavic Soul is a screne projection of Balkan throat singers dressed in traditional costume with their penises exposed, embodying both virility and vulnerability.
Wedding Rituals sees a bride having her wedding make-up painstakingly applied, whilst another bride is being prepared for her wedding day as milk is poured over her for four hours as a symbol of purification and fertility, with the latter a particularly mesmerising performance from Rowena Gander.
Whilst the performances work independently of each other in telling their tale, there are underlying connections between them, and there was movement of characters between some scenes, particularly The Kafana Complex, Deaf Dance, and Black Wedding that added a further layer of connectivity and intrigue, held together by the band and ritual songs.
Given the extended duration – and there are no intervals – much credit must be given to the stamina of the cast of over seventy performers, dancers, musicians, and singers as the experience unfolds across the studio in an impressive array of costumes designed by Roksanda Ilinčić.
Choreographer Blenard Azizaj and Durational Performance Director Billy Zhao ensure that whilst somewhat cyclical in nature, each scene continues to draw the eye with something new and nuanced taking place against the backdrop of Anna Schöttl’s impressive set designs, whilst Urs Schönebaum’s specialist lighting design cleverly illuminates each scene whilst allowing the scene to shine outwardly as well.
The beating heart however comes from composers Marko Nikodijević and Luka Kozlovački who have captured the ecstasy and rhythm of Balkan folk music, which draws you, trance-like, through the series of vignettes again and again, with a hypnotic intensity that reminded me of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat.
Abramović’s work is often considered confrontational, and she is certainly unflinching in her approach to sexuality and eroticism whilst challenging perceptions about pornography. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and whilst this production is unafraid to push the boundaries of eroticism and performance art, there is a context of ritual and rite underlining it rather than sensationalism: breathtaking and beautiful, I wish it didn’t have to end.
And the good news is that it will run at Factory International’s Aviva Studio in Manchester through to 19th October 2025 before commencing an international tour. Further details and tickets https://factoryinternational.org/whats-on/marina-abramovic-balkan-epic/
Reviewer: Mark Davoren
Reviewed: 14th October 2025
North West End UK Rating: