Marina Abramović Opens Up about Funeral Plans–Her “Final Performance” She Says

Plans include burying three bodies, one real and two dummies.

Marina Abramović has spoken about plans for her own funeral while addressing an audience in Sydney.

An artist’s funeral, if they can plan it, should be a spectacular work of art, and the queen of performance art is cutting no corners with hers.

Abramović, who recently announced a collaboration with fashion house Givenchy, said that “an artist should die consciously without fear” and that “the funeral is the artist’s last piece before leaving.”

While speaking as a part of her twelve-day residency at Kaldor Public Art Projects, she discussed new details for her funeral plans.

Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images North America

Marina Abramović with Givenchy’s Ricardo Tisci
Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images North America

Following the funeral of close friend Susan Sontag in 2004, she was so affected that she immediately began to make her own arrangements.

“It was the saddest funeral I’ve been to in my life and she is one of the greatest human beings I have ever met,” said Abramović, as reported in the Guardian. “She was full of life, curious, and just an incredible writer. I went back to New York and went straight to the lawyer and said my funeral is going to be like this. And then I made an entire script.”

“I want to have three Marinas,” she explained. “Of course, one is real and two fake because you can’t have three bodies. But I want these three Marinas buried in the three cities which I’ve lived the longest, which is Belgrade, Amsterdam, and New York.”

Where her actual body will be buried is to remain a total secret, she added.

Jay Z and Marina Abramovic during the 2013 shoot for "Picasso Baby."Photo via Consequence of Sound.

Jay Z and Marina Abramović during the 2013 shoot of Picasso Baby
Photo via: Consequence of Sound

She would like everyone to dress in bright colors, and has even chosen the music she would like to have.

“I want Antony [Hegarty] of Antony and the Johnsons, who is a great singer and friend of mine, to sing I Did It My Way,” she continued. “He never said yes but I think he will be so sad that I die he will probably do it.”

Abramović is in Australia as she has an exhibition, currently running at David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, entitled “Private Archaeology”.

The show features photography, 13 self-portraits, and filmed performances, including one of the artist eating an onion. In order to nail the right shot, however, the artist had to eat not just one, but three raw onions.

“The first time, the light on video wasn’t so good,” she confessed. “The second, sound was lousy. The third, I couldn’t speak or talk, my throat was burning.”

Forget 736-hour performance art, now that is true dedication.

Marina Abramović’s “Private Archeology” is on view at the Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, from June 13-October 5, 2015.


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