Marina Abramović on childhood, painting, and Aboriginal influence in rare interview

In a 2016 interview republished in 2017 to coincide with the release of her memoir 'Traverser les murs' (Fayard, October 2017), Marina Abramović discusses her early painting system, childhood, and transformative experiences with Aboriginal Australians. The interview was conducted by Peter Hill during her 2015 retrospective 'Private Archaeology' at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart, Tasmania (June 13–October 5, 2015), and continued at her 'In Residence' project in Sydney Harbour. Abramović describes a lonely childhood in communist Yugoslavia, where she played with shadows and developed a three-stage painting system: dreams, big socialist trucks crashing, and lying on her back painting clouds. She recalls a revelation when twelve military planes flew overhead, leading her to abandon painting for performance. She and Ulay spent time with Aboriginal communities in Australia, which she calls life-changing, influencing works like 'Nightsea Crossing' (1981–1987) and 'Conjunction' (1985) with a Tibetan lama. Abramović praises Aboriginal people as 'fully-realized human beings' attuned to the present, contrasting with Western irresponsibility. The interview also touches on her collaboration with John Cage, Daniel Buren, and Laurie Anderson in Micronesia (1980).