The international performance art superstar has two other major presentations in Australia this month.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney has announced that its planned Marina Abramović exhibition, due to open in 2016, has been cancelled “due to a number of external factors.” The announcement comes in the same week as Hobart’s MONA opens its major retrospective of Abramović’s forty year career as a performance artist, Private Archaeology.

Abramović is arguably the world’s most influential and successful performance artist alive today. The highly anticipated exhibition in Tasmania will be opened by Abramović on Friday, and an “in conversation” event between Abramović and MONA founder David Walsh on June 14 has sold out well in advance.

Just 10 days later another major Australian outing for Abramović opens at Walsh Bay’s Pier 2/3 in Sydney. Abramović: In Residence, presented by the Kaldor Public Art Projects, will see the celebrity artist actively curate a new piece of immersive performance art, in which the public will be directed by Abramović “like a conductor.” Describing the piece, Abramović says “My function in this new kind of performance situation is to show you, through the Abramovic Method, what you can do for yourself. I wanted to make this big change because I understood that actually you can’t get any experience by me doing it for you.” In addition to the performance pieces Abramović will curate, there will also be a series of talks by the artist. As in Hobart, demand for access to the Sydney shows has been exceptionally high and tickets have also sold out.

However the MCA have apparently fallen foul of this glut of showings of Abramović’s work around Australia. Although the MCA Senior Curator Rachel Kent’s vision for the 2016 exhibition had intended to focus on Abramović’s work from the 70s, in contrast to the other two major Australian presentations taking place this month, it seems that funding applications for a third major Australian exhibition of the same artist were unsuccessful. In a statement issued earlier today the MCA said, “As Marina’s other upcoming artistic projects in Australia grew in scope the time of the MCA exhibition proved very difficult, and impacted out ability to secure sufficient financial support.” 

Marina Abramović: Private Archeology is presented by MONA 13 June until 5 October. 
Kaldor Public Art Project 30: Marina Abramović in Residence will be presented at Pier 2/3, Sydney from 24 June until 5 July.

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