Marina Abramović's 'The Kitchen' video trilogy debuts at Milan's Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

Marina Abramović's three-part video series 'The Kitchen. Homage to Saint Therese' will be presented in full for the first time at Milan's Pinacoteca Ambrosiana from October 18 to December 31, 2019. The exhibition, titled 'Marina Abramović. Estasi' and curated by Casa Testori, is installed in the Sala Sottofedericiana adjacent to the Cripta di San Sepolcro. The videos were inspired by Saint Teresa of Ávila's diaries, which describe mystical ecstasies occurring in the kitchen. Abramović created the work in 2009 after an invitation from Mateo Feijóo, then director of the Teatro de la Laboral in Gijón, Spain. The performance was filmed in the former kitchen of a convent of Poor Clare nuns in Gijón, built between the 1940s and 1950s as part of a self-sufficient city for orphaned children of miners. The convent was abandoned in the 1980s and later renovated, becoming the Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura in 2007. The three videos—'Vanitas', 'Carrying the Milk', and 'Levitation'—trace Abramović's journey toward ecstasy. The exhibition is produced by Vanitasclub in collaboration with the Veneranda Biblioteca and Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.