Marina Abramović's 'Ecstasy' to Open at Castel dell'Ovo in Naples Post-Lockdown

Marina Abramović's exhibition 'Estasi' (Ecstasy) will open at Castel dell'Ovo in Naples on September 5, 2020, as one of the first major art shows after Italy's COVID-19 lockdown. The show features 'The Kitchen. Homage to Saint Therese,' a trilogy of videos inspired by the diaries of Saint Teresa of Ávila, depicting the saint's mystical ecstasies in the kitchen. The videos were filmed in the kitchens of a former convent of Poor Clare nuns in Gijón, Spain, built in the 1940s-50s as part of a self-sufficient city for orphaned miners' children. The convent was abandoned in the 1980s, later renovated, and became the Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura in 2007, hosting Abramović's performance in 2009. The Naples exhibition, curated by Casa Testori and promoted by VanitasClub, will be installed in the Sala delle Carceri, a former prison. Abramović previously performed in Naples in 1974 at Galleria Studio Morra, where she presented 'Rhythm 0,' allowing viewers to use objects including weapons on her immobile body. Mayor Luigi de Magistris and Culture Councillor Eleonora de Majo emphasized the show as a symbol of cultural rebirth, with safety measures in place.