"In our culture today, we label anything erotic as pornography. Balkan Erotic Epic is the most ambitious work in my career. This gives me a chance to go back to my Slavic roots and culture, look back to ancient rituals and deal with sexuality, in relation to the universe and the unanswered questions of our existence. Through this project I would like to show poetry, desperation, pain, hope, suffering, and reflect our own mortality." -Marina Abramović Balkan Erotic Epic is a bold new performance work created by the iconic artist Marina Abramović. Regarded as the world’s most influential performance artist, Abramović’s transformative work has reached millions of people – from opening the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival to taking up residence in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Now she creates one of her most ambitious shows ever here in Manchester. A four-hour ritual where ancient myth meets performance art, Balkan Erotic Epic explores the eroticism, spirituality and traditions of Abramović’s homeland through 13 visceral scenes. Brought to life by a cast of over 70 performers, dancers, musicians and singers, the experience unfolds across Aviva Studios. Audiences are free to choose their own path – with pop-up encounters punctuating the action, bringing bodies together in dance, song and ritual. Watch Fertility Rite, a fevered ritual where bodies writhe against the ground in a desperate call for fertility. Witness Massaging the Breast where women gesticulate over graves to awaken the earth. In Scaring the Gods, women bare themselves to the sky to banish storms. Listen closely as Elke – narrator and guide – reveals more of the mythology. Unafraid to push the boundaries of eroticism and performance art, Balkan Erotic Epic asks its audience a timeless question: What are our bodies truly for? Unflinching, intimate and sacred, with Balkan Erotic Epic Abramović reclaims the body as a site of power, mystery and transformation.
Audience Role
Audiences will walk around the installation freely, choosing to stop and observe whichever of the active scenarios they choose.
Ages: 18 +
This production contains full nudity and graphic sexual scenes, including simulated acts.
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Tags
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4
Years on EI
About Factory International
Welcome to Factory International. Here, art gets turned inside out by world-renowned figures together with Manchester’s rising stars. Whether it’s music, dance, an exhibition, performance or a new combination – expect a twist on the familiar or a leap into the unknown. After all, this is Manchester – a city with a history of innovation that's hard to beat. You’ll find people collaborating in and around our venue – mixing disciplines and blurring boundaries to produce intimate concerts, digital experiences and unforgettable shows all year round. But we're so much more than our building. We run Manchester International Festival (MIF) — the festival of brand new artistic work, known world-over, that has animated and captivated our city since 2007. We’re also training the creative workforce of the future through the Factory Academy, supporting artists to realise their potential, and working with local communities to build our programme. But we don’t stop at Manchester – we take our work to partner venues and festivals all around the world and create extraordinary digital experiences – inviting everyone to play in our virtual world.