Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present an in conversation event with Marina Abramovic and Kendell Geers at Central Saint Martins, London., 12 September 2014

Marina Abramovic Versus Kendell Geers broadcast live from Central Saint Martins

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present an in conversation event with Marina Abramovic and Kendell Geers at Central Saint Martins, London.

The event coincides with Kendell Geers’ current exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and Marina Abramovic’ upcoming show at Lisson Gallery, London.

Marina Abramovic is a New York-based Serbian performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over four decades, her work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.

Abramovic was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In 2008, she was decorated with the Austrian Commander Cross for her contribution to art history. In 2010, Abramovic had her first major U.S. retrospective and simultaneously performed for 716 hours in “The Artist is Present” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This was followed by her most recent exhibition ‘Marina Abramovic: 512 Hours’ at the Serpentine Gallery, London, which closed in August this year.

The work of South African artist Kendell Geers is often felt as an artistic response to horrid socio-political conditions, as it is deeply influenced by his identity as a white Afrikaner raised during apartheid in his native country. His practice is layered with ethical, spiritual, and aesthetic questions, exploring the boundaries of what is permissible and questioning the most basic concepts of identity, power, and language. The raw but poetic way in which Geers communicates both attracts and repulses, fascinates and awakens. He uses a wide variety of media, references, and strategies in a confrontational rather than dictatorial manner. Through this process the artist’s bright and dark sides are endlessly negotiated in an effort to find a balance between the beautiful and the dangerous.

Geers has shown in numerous international group exhibitions and extensively across Europe, including the African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007) and Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany (2002). Most recently, a retrospective of his work was exhibited at Haus der Kunst in Munich (2013).