Skeleton orgies, breast-kneaders and five-metre-high penises: Marina Abramovic on her most daring show ever

"It's homemade, she says, given to her by a friend. Her Irish assistant, Declan, who cooked the lamb, bustles around her amicably. Abramovic is amicable too, offering me the chops and lathering ajvar on to a rice cake for me to taste (delicious). It is a disarmingly cosy welcome from the high priestess of performance art. Then again, this might be the quiet before the storm."

"Her new show, Balkan Erotic Epic, a four-hour performance conceived and directed by Abramovic and commissioned by Factory International, may ruffle some feathers. More than 70 actors, dancers and local performers will feature in 13 scenes that enact ancient ritual, rites and folklore from Slavic tradition. Many contain nudity and act out explicit eroticism that arises out of the tales collected from Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Serbia, and more."

"She points to a phallus that looks like a long thin neck. We call that one Giacometti,' she says I found out, she says, that these ancient rituals for farming, for childbirth, for weddings, for funerals, with absolutely no exception, used the genitals the vagina and the penis in so many different ways. Screens, film, music and animation will accompany live performance and fill the monumental 64-metre long, 21-metre high dimensions of Aviva Studios."

Marina Abramović is rehearsing in Manchester and sharing a meal of lamb chops and homemade ajvar. She has conceived and directed Balkan Erotic Epic, a four-hour performance commissioned by Factory International. More than 70 actors, dancers and local performers will appear across 13 scenes enacting Slavic rituals, rites and folklore drawn from Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey and Serbia. Many scenes include nudity and explicit eroticism rooted in ancient farming, childbirth, wedding and funeral practices that incorporated genital imagery. Screens, film, music and animation will accompany the live performance in Aviva Studios' 64-metre by 21-metre space.

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