Watch now: Marina Abramović at Lisson Gallery, Shanghai

22 May 2023

Marina Abramović's first exhibition with Lisson Gallery China brings together a selection of works from the artist’s Transitory Objects series, alongside photography from her groundbreaking 1970s performances, and a film installation.

This exhibition in Shanghai is a landmark moment for the artist as a return to the country where she enacted one of her most iconic performances: her walk across the Great Wall in China with Ulay in 1988. Abramović was inspired by this very experience – in particular the shifting states and diverse minerals present in the ground on which she walked – to create the Transitory Objects series, which she began on her return from China and continued to develop over the following decades. The Transitory Objects series is also meaningful as it was the artist’s first series of work that involves the public’s participation. Engaging with materials such as quartz, crystals, copper, iron and wood, Abramović invites the audience to directly interact with these works, and to receive their energy – using it as a means of transit to a meditative state of consciousness. As Abramović once said, “the artist’s function is to present the work and deliver it to the public, so the public can bring it to completion”.

Find out more about the exhibition here.