“in nature, you can’t make art”, she said

“The only thing we knew was that the best answer we could look for was in nature. So we went back to the desert and started traveling. The desert was a great place for us, because there was a minimum of information, an extremely violent environment, heat, and so on. You were confronted with yourself and your own life. Then we decided to go to the Aborigines to find answers in nature. We chose the Aborigines because the culture was absolutely nomadic, as we were. At that time, we lived in the car and just traveled around. We didn’t have any home. Also, Aborigines don’t just make ceremonies three times a year. Ceremony is their life. They have this amazing narrative culture, the dreamtime stories. When they make a ceremony, they spend a long time making the most beautiful objects. The moment the ceremony is finished, the objects are left there, destroyed. And then they start all over again. So there was no material culture. It was very close to how we thought about our life and performance as a way of living. Another interesting thing about Aborigines is that they never had yes or no in their language. They don’t exist because they don’t doubt. They are completely connected with nature, and there is no doubt in their minds. Suicide doesn’t exist in the Aboriginal world because it’s not needed. It was very interesting how much we learned, how much we were inspired by this culture. We didn’t produce any work there; in nature, you can’t make art. Nature is so perfect as it is that art becomes an obstacle. Art can only be done in destructive societies that have to be rebuilt. I see the artist as a bridge between nature and the city. We went to nature to get, and we went to our society to give. “

Marina Abramovic during an interview performed by Janet A. Kaplan, published in Art Journal, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 7-21, published by College Art Association