TOhe dawn of the 2026 Biennale, Venice welcomes a debut that smells of history and an intense, glittering energy. It opens at the Gallerie dell’Accademia Transforming Energythe solo exhibition of Marina Abramović which breaks every lagoon pattern.
It’s an appointment worth marking in your diary not only because it celebrates the artist’s eightieth birthday (which will blow out the candles on November 30th). But also because, for the first time, such an important institution bows to a living woman. Letting them invade even the rooms of the permanent collection.
Marina Abramović’s great return to Venice
See Transforming Energyis crossing a suspended atmosphere full of profound meanings. Away from the buzz of the world to tune into an inner frequency, the visit is a long and calm exercise in introspection. At the centre, rituality, breathing, stillness (i.e. the ability to remain still, preferably with one’s eyes closed). «Marina Abramović made undivided attention something radical, even glamorous and decidedly transformative. This could be the secret of his singular popularity.” comments curator Shai Baitel, artistic director of the Modern Art Museum of Shanghai.
Crystals, minerals and memory
The heart of the exhibition revolves around Transient Objects. Sculptures in stone and crystals that are just waiting to be activated, through three elementary postures: standing, sitting or lying down. The invitation is to strip yourself of passivity, to become an integral part of the work. Looking for the same energy transmission that Abramović he learned decades ago, during the famous 1988 trip/performance (at the time 42 years old) on Great Wall with her then partner Ulay.
Photo Courtesy of Press Office
Precisely in that epic journey, staying in the villages of rural China and learning the rudiments of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the artist discovered the secrets of minerals. Thousand-year archives capable of store the Earth’s memoryto return it in the form of pure vibration. A sort of recharge for the soul, which purifies and sharpens the inner eye. Transforming the rooms of the Accademia Galleries in a set of metaphysical well-being.
A unique and unrepeatable setup
The true emotion of this exhibition that the artist dedicates to his parents, however, explodes in the dialogue between the Photographic pieta by Abramović from 1983 and the last, tormented masterpiece of Titian. Seeing these two works created 450 years apart reflecting one another transforms Renaissance pain into a contemporary and palpable feeling. Where the human body remains the only, eternal place of spiritual elevation.
Photo Courtesy of Press Office
It is a visual bridge between past and present, demonstrating that art has no expiration date. Especially in a city that has always been a crossroads of precious materials and contaminations between different worlds. Where the quartz and theamethyst by Abramović blend ideally with the ancient wisdom of the mosaics of Lagoon.
The unmissable catalogue
For those who want to take a piece of this journey home, or for those who don’t have the opportunity to go to Venicethere is the catalog published by Skira Arte. An authentic object of desire, it is a publication (XL size) full of unpublished texts and shots. From the archive photos of the beginnings to the Chinese performance, from the subsequent research phase in the mines in Brazil, to site-specific projects and much more.
Photo credit: Marco Anelli.
It is a precious book, which collects the legacy of a tireless investigator of human potential. On the threshold of his eightieth year, the artist chooses to offer the world a map, to navigate interiority with the right presence.
The exhibition will remain open until October 19, 2026 (address Campo della Carità, Dorsoduro district of Venice) accompanying the entire Biennale Arte 2026. A golden opportunity to experience Venice at a different pace, slower and decidedly more magnetic.