When Marina Abramovic dies - James Westcott

When Marina Abramovic Dies examines the extraordinary
life and death-defying work of one of the most pioneering artists of her
generation--and one who is still at the forefront of contemporary art today. This
intimate, critical biography chronicles Abramovic's formative and until now
undocumented years in Yugoslavia, and tells the story of her partnership with the
German artist Ulay--one of the twentieth century's great examples of the fusion of
artistic and private life.

In one of many long-durational
performances in the renewed solo career that followed, Abramovic famously lived in a
New York gallery for twelve days without eating or speaking, nourished only by
prolonged eye contact with audience members. It was here, in 2002, that author James
Westcott first encountered her, beginning an exceptionally close relation between
biographer and subject. When Marina Abramovic Dies draws on
Westcott's personal observations of Abramovic, his unprecedented access to her
archive, and hundreds of hours of interviews he conducted with the artist and the
people closest to her. The result is a unique and vivid portrait of the charismatic
self-proclaimed "grandmother of performance art."