Performance artist Marina Abramovic visits Montenegro

Performance artist Marina Abramovic visits Montenegro

He told the daily Blic some "behind the scenes" details of Abramovic's visit to Budva, and about the artist in private, out of the limelight.

"Marina stayed three days in Montenegro. She wanted to rest as much as possible in the Dukley Garden complex, and we respected that all the way. We had some interesting meetings, a joint dinner on the first day, a discussion in the Summer Stage the next day, while the merriest moments happened on the road from Budva to the airport. With us was also Jusuf Hadzifejzovic, the famous Bosnian artist whom she lovedsvery much, and we were mostly telling jokes," said Cukovic. In the Dukley Art Center in Kotor, Marina met artists from around the world who are invited to stay there each year and create works mostly devoted to their experience of Montenegro. This year, the world famous performance artist Oleg Kulik was among them. Marina visited gallery rooms and the studios, and then decided to speak to the summer school students, of whom there are currently about 20.

In her conversation with the students in English, Abramovic was completely relaxed and in her element, while during the conversation on the Summer Stage, when she spoke about her book of memoirs, "Walk Through Walls," in front of an audience of about 400 - she was somewhat more nervous, Cukovic reveals - and the reason was the fact she has not been speaking "our language" for a long time.

Cukovic also said that in person, Abramovic "can very much be like any 'normal' person," and that she is "incredibly spontaneous and charming and loves to joke."

Marina's joy and wit is especially fascinating considered her tragic upbringing and the difficult relationship with her parents, he said, and noted that the artists speaks about this openly in her memoir.

Cukovic also referred to the stance of Serbia and of Montenegro toward her work - "Abramovic herself has said that it seemed to her Serbia never recognized her as an artist":

"Her overall opus is impressive, and it is the loss, first and foremost, of the Serbian culture, that she is not given proper treatment and institutionality. Now there are some announcements, Marina was recently in Belgrade, some even reported that the current prime minister said she was even ready to go to New York in order to talk her into a retrospective (exhibition) in Belgrade. That would certainly correct the mistake, but one remains saddened that people from my industry are unable to separate some positions of their from a wider picture."

Asked "what it was about Marina Abramovic work that is iritating others so much, that they mind so much" - Cukovic did not have a concrete answer, and said, "I can only assume that it's about going into those forms that are not considered traditional art forms."