Marina Abramović

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book, and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:43

My castaway this week is Marina Abramovich. She's one of the most revered living artists. During her fifty year career, she has moved, scandalized, provoked and delighted audiences around the world and in the process brought performance art into the mainstream. Her work is characterized by physical endurance. She has drugged herself, walked the Great Wall of China and spent days vainly attempting to clean blood from a gigantic pile of cowbones representing the war in the country of her birth, the former Yugoslavia.

Presenter1:15

Her work is every bit as emotional as it is physical, and her invitation to us, the public, to participate has made her world famous. In the beginning, the reaction was sometimes violent. In 1974, she invited gallerygoers to use objects on her body to stimulate pleasure or pain. She was attacked, left scarred, and so traumatized, her hair turned white. Yet 40 years later, almost a million people attended her exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, many queuing for hours for a chance to sit opposite her in her landmark work, The Artist is Present.

Presenter1:50

Most recently she's been present in London, dominating the city's art scene, with a retrospective at the Royal Academy, a show at the English National Opera, and a takeover of the South Bank Centre. She says The entire aim of my work is to elevate the human spirit. Marina Abramovich, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Presenter2:10

Hello. Um sorry.

Marina Abramović2:11

I need water because my voice like is with Tom Waits and Marlene Dietrich on the bed day.

Presenter2:19

I want to start with that idea of uplifting people, if you don't mind, because I think we all need it at the moment. Has that always been your purpose or are you reacting and responding to the times that we live in?

Marina Abramović2:29

You know, it's really important, you know, what is my function as an artist today. And I always believe that the function of an artist is a function of a servant. We have to really see what's happening around us and we have to see what really we can give to the society. It's so easy to reflect the horror of the moment, but it's so important how to trust in that horror and actually create beauty and harmony and something that actually can bring a peace in your heart. And to me, it's really important lifting the human spirit.

Presenter2:43

Uh

Presenter2:59

Marina, you're sharing your music with us today, and I know that music is incredibly important to you. You've described it several times as the highest form of immaterial art. How did you approach choosing the music that you're going to take to your desert island?

Marina Abramović3:12

It's a very nomadic choice, actually. It's all over the place. I don't have one kind of style that I like. People love just dressing, they listen to dress just like classic music. I mix everything up. And it's very much to do with my three very clear marinas that I accept in myself. And they're all full of contradictions. There is a heroic marina, then we have a spiritual one. I just want to live in monasteries. I just would like to stay with monks forever, the rest of my life. And then we have the bullshit one. And bullshit.

Presenter3:43

So this is the third marina, because I think the first two are quite present in your work, but the third one might surprise people.

Marina Abramović3:44

Because I think

Marina Abramović3:48

The third one is a really more private one. The people know that I'm hilarious. You know, I'm so serious in my work, but I am so known for the really dirty, politically not correct jokes. And then the one who love chocolates, who love to be lazy, who love, you know, really cheesy music.

Presenter4:03

Uh Well, Marina, we're very pleased to have all three Marinas present and represented in your discs. Tell us about your first piece of music. What have you chosen and why?

Marina Abramović4:13

It's a Godber variation by Bach and it's performed by Igor Levitt. So we met and we just had the most insane joke telling each other. So we had so much fun and we have this connection. But what I told him is to sit at the piano absolutely motionless for half an hour. A piano is coming very slowly. This was done in Armory, very slowly on the rail towards the public. And public is sitting 650 people in the deck chairs, well like beach chairs, in a kind of semi-circle. But before they come to auditorium, they open the lockers and they have to detox themselves with totally technology. They have to put the watches, the computer and the telephone in, close. They get headphones. They go into that hole, sit on deck chairs with headphones who absolutely block any sound. And all they see is the pianist sitting motionless on the piano approaching to them to the circle. So when he gets to the center, they hear the gong, they take the headphones off, and then they start hearing the music. And the light is going slowly, slowly down till the end, the only visible is his hands lit, playing the music.

Presenter6:30

The Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations, played by Igor Levitt. Marina, I want to go back to the beginning and talk about your roots. You were born in Belgrade, Serbia, then Yugoslavia, 1946, to Vojin and Dnica Abramovich. They were both war heroes and members of the post-war Yugoslavian Communist government, and the story of their meeting is incredibly dramatic. Is it true that they saved each other's lives?

Marina Abramović6:56

It's true.

Marina Abramović6:58

You know, my mother was actually commander of the unit of the First Front, the Red Cross, the bringing the soldiers out of the field, into the hospital. And my father was in kind of guerrilla and really doing very courageous acts, like going into on the white horse into a village full of Germans and attract their attention and they all run after him and he have the brigade behind and kill everybody. And after one or two years, they come in wounded partisans, and one of these wounded people is my father. And this was in the war. Nobody gave each other transfusion, no blood. She discovered they have the same blood group and give transfusion and save his life. And then, you know, they fall madly in love. And in 1946, they married, and I was born in 1946. And then the marriage was hell because they came from completely two different types of people and they never could connect. You know, that leads to divorce and lots of trouble. But this was a really romantic, amazing story.

Presenter7:59

So a difficult marriage, but an incredible meeting. Even though it was communist Yugoslavia that you were growing up in, the positions that your parents held in the party meant that you had quite a a comparatively wealthy lifestyle at the time. What was home like?

Marina Abramović8:14

But you know, first of all, if you're a communist and you've been with the Tito Army and been national heroes, you're completely privileged. It's like a red bourgeoisie. He had the French lessons, I have English lessons, I had a ballet teacher, I have the piano teacher. We have made all the thing I would have to do is to get education and study. This was all what was required from me. It is very spoiled looking from outside. But at the same time, both parents never talked to each other. It was very violent and a very sad childhood. It was one of the kind of the darkest parts of my life.

Presenter8:48

Marina, let's take a moment for your second choice.

Marina Abramović8:51

The kitchen of my grandmother, it was the center of my vault. She was deeply religious, she hated communism, she would bring me to the church and on the horror of my mother and father, who were absolutely artists. So this constant contradiction between these two worlds. And I remember the morning I was sitting and waiting for breakfast that she was making. And we had the very old Backellit radio, which is like always on. She always listened to whatever it is. It can be folk music, can be classic music, can be bad news, good news, whatever was on. And just out of this radio came this incredible voice. And I remember so strongly and put the radio absolutely on maximum, stand in the middle of the kitchen with eyes closed and listen to the voice. And it was such moving for me, something so incredibly emotional. And the speaker, when the music was finished, they said, this was Casta Diva, you know, from the Maria Carlos.

Speaker 49:55

It rains if you want to.

Speaker 410:21

Oh in me to sing your sing song.

Speaker 410:33

They sing songs.

Presenter10:45

Maria Callas, singing Casta diva from Norma by Bellini, with the orchestra of La Scala Milan, conducted by Tullio Serafin. Marina, your mother encouraged your love of art, but she also exerted enormous control over you. You've described your childhood as full of spirits and dead people that I could see.

Marina Abramović11:05

I liked shadows, I like invisible beings, I like to see the dust coming out of the window, you know, like the miniature planets from another galaxy. I had this incredible, very, very strong imagination. And there was this placard, which is like a kind of cupboard that you get in, which was one of the places that I really believed that the spirits lived there. I didn't want to be at home. I never felt I was there welcome. I always felt that some kind of strange destiny, strange karma put me into that kind of environment to learn the lesson. All what I want to go is to live.

Presenter11:18

Yeah.

Presenter11:40

You talked about yourself earlier, Marina, as about Marina number one, who i you often describe as a warrior. I wonder if you consider yourself a survivor of your childhood?

Marina Abramović11:50

I never felt happiness at home. I never felt in my home the mother and father never even talked and they were incredible violent to each other. They slept with the pistols next to the bed. And I was thinking that's the way how it was. Only much later when I actually see the other families and see how happiness can look like, then I really felt that I was completely deprived from all of that. That must have been a shock. Yeah, but at the same time, I will not change anything. You know, how am I now? It's been very hardcore, my upgrading, but I learned so much. I began so strong. And now I'm doing this work 55 years. And, you know, I'm 77. And, you know, people go to pension and they stop working. I'm not even thinking of stop working. I mean, I have so many projects still in my mind. I have now completely booked the work till 2027.

Presenter12:42

I think that's artists. They just keep going and going. It's time to turn to the music, Marina. Your third choice today. What's it going to be and why are you taking it with you?

Marina Abramović12:51

Now is something very special. I was visiting Bjork at home. She had a little barbecue, and there were a few musicians that I didn't know. And she just introduced me to one and said, This is Anthony Johnson. And it was this big, big guy standing there, sitting, hardly not talking. So I say hello to him, and it was all my conversation. I went to this concert. And then

Marina Abramović13:15

Kim

Marina Abramović13:17

Anthony. And he stood there and he sang this song. I stood up literally and just tears come through my eyes, uncontrollable. This was a voice of angels. This was voice that I never heard before. Later on, you know, and we become friends. He sings on my 60th birthday. And then, you know, later on, he transitioned and he's transgender now. And the name is Anoni. And this music that we're going to hear, it's an incredible piece. It's come from the album Hopelessness and it's called 4 Degree. And we will be just this 4 degree warmer. Our planet will stop existing. And I think it's an incredible song. And I would like you to hear.

Presenter13:38

The position

Speaker 414:00

It's only four degrees, it's only for a degree

Speaker 414:06

It's only four degrees, it's only four degrees It's only four degrees, it's only four degrees It's only four degrees, it's only four degrees

Presenter14:32

Anoni, and four degrees. Marina, your mother had a high profile job as the director of the Museum of Art and Revolution in Belgrade, and when you were fourteen she took you to Venice to the Biennale. What sort of impression did your first sight of the city make on you?

Marina Abramović14:48

I remember fourteen years old coming to Venice Biennale with the train, which takes a long, long time from Belgrade.

Presenter14:54

Uh

Marina Abramović14:54

And coming out and crying, and she said, Why are you crying now? I said, It's so beautiful. I never saw Venice, the gondola and things look it was like coming from the very grey, gloomy communism into this unbelievable, overwhelming beauty. It was like almost too much. And then going to see the Venice Biennale and like Rauschenberg and Louisa Nevelson. I mean, those are the things that I never saw exist.

Presenter15:10

Technical

Presenter15:13

Mm.

Presenter15:21

I'm taking

Marina Abramović15:22

And it was like opening my eyes to this amazing art.

Presenter15:25

You actually asked your parents for oil paints and art lessons. I think that was for your 14th birthday. What did your first lesson consist of, your first formal art lesson?

Marina Abramović15:34

My father asked what I want for birthday, and I say I want oil painting because I was again 14. Oil painting was like, wow, then you come really artists because everything was done with watercolors and crayons, you know. So he doesn't know nothing about art. He's really old revolutionary guy. But he had one of the soldiers of him who became abstract painter and went to Paris to study. So he was just, you know, visiting Belgrade and he called him and say, help me for the daughter to buy the oil painting and give her at least one lesson. So we go to the shop, we got tons of stuff. He brings me to a tiny little room that was my studio. And I remember so well, he cut the canvas, but doesn't put on the frame, just a kind of free canvas on the floor and irregular. Then he throwed some glue on the canvas, little bit of yellow color, little bit of red, a touch of blue, and then he put the gasoline over the whole thing and he put the match and just throw on the canvas and everything explode. And he looked at me and said, This is sunset, and he left. This was the first painting lesson of my life. I mean, for kids, this is impressive. It was really just this whole idea that how art can be so many different things and the approach have to be different. So it was an important lesson.

Presenter16:50

To make some room for the music. Give us your fourth disc, if you would. What's next?

Marina Abramović16:54

Paloma Negra, Chavella Vargas, I love, she's Mexican, she was early lesbian, she was so powerful, unbelievable singer, but also enormously drinking, tequila, you know, and kind of behaving like a warrior. But there is something about her music that I like so much. It's a music so full of passion, so full of tristas, of the sadness and melancholy. And there is especially this song, the Paloma Negra, this the moment where she cracked her voice and it's just something that I can't even explain. I really have a physical reaction on her voice.

Speaker 417:35

Yagaraste portuguenta la pará.

Speaker 417:48

Paulo Manegra

Speaker 417:50

Paloma nevra nonde don de andara.

Speaker 417:59

Yano hue combiondra

Presenter18:03

Paloma Negra by Cavela Vargas. Marina Abramovich, in 1974 you performed one of your most famous and most notorious works. You placed 72 objects, including a loaded pistol, numerous sharp tools, a rose, a book and a whip on a table and you invited the public to do whatever they liked to you for six hours. What were you expecting to happen and what actually happened that day?

Marina Abramović18:30

I didn't expect anything. I was just angry. I was so angry that at that time, the performance was so trashed. You know, there was the horrible criticism. There was never even considered as an art form and so on. So the public in the beginning, they come and they play with me. They will give me the rose, they will give me the kiss. Then they start getting more and more violent at the time, because time is a very important factor, because time goes on and on. And then they cut my t-shirt, then they take roses, the pin of the roses that stuck into my body, then they cut under my neck, then they start drinking the blood. I think the only day I'm not raped, because it was a normal art opening and people came with the wives. I was just like nobody expecting any of this. And then there was also a pistol put in, bullet in the pistol, put into my hand, and the person was squeezing my hand. And then another person came to take the pistols, throw out the window. It was all this hustle and lots of things happening. I said, the galleries were six hours is finished. Come and tell me. Because whatever you do with me, I have no reaction. The woman would tell men what to do. They never touched me. They would take tears out of my eyes. It was very interesting. It was two in the morning when he came to me and said, six hours is over. And for the first time, I start, you know, getting me as me. And I start walking to the public. And literally, everybody ran away. And I came to the hotel and I looked myself in the mirror and I had a piece of gray hair. And that I knew the public can kill you.

Presenter19:00

stuck into my body then

Presenter19:24

So that was a lot of this.

Presenter19:39

Hmm.

Presenter19:57

Yeah.

Presenter20:00

Do you reflect on the extremes that you are pushing your yourself and your body to?

Marina Abramović20:03

No, no, it's done, it's done, I learned the lesson, I have to move on. This is something that I hate this kind of questions because I can't deal with the sentimentality of it. You know, to me, it's so important.

Presenter20:13

Yeah.

Marina Abramović20:15

Learn the lesson and move on. Learn the lesson that move on. Now

Presenter20:17

Then

Marina Abramović20:19

I'm seventy seven. This exhibition is the ending of a big period of my life. I am completely now for the new work, new perspectives, new ideas.

Presenter20:29

All right, Marina. Well, I want to h find out what came next, but first let's have some more music. Your fifth choice to the

Marina Abramović20:33

Your fifth choice today. Now, let's go to Tina Tarner. I love Tina Tarner. I love how she, you know, changed her life, how she can get out of this, you know, torture relationship and create new self. And I like this animal part of her. I like her as a dancer. I like her as a performer, as incredible charismatic, full of life. And I just, when every time anybody asks me what you're going to sing in karaoke setting, in Korean restaurant, I always go for a private answer. Let's listen.

Presenter21:07

And your karaoke repertoire, is it just the one song or are you?

Marina Abramović21:10

No, no, no, just private answer. I don't, I'm terrible. I and my voice is impossible.

Speaker 421:16

You don't think of them at all.

Speaker 421:20

You keep your mind on the money.

Speaker 421:24

Keeping your eyes on the wall, I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money. Do what you want me to do.

Speaker 421:35

I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money, and any of your music will live.

Presenter21:45

Tina Turner and private dancer Marina Abramovich your karaoke song

Marina Abramović21:52

I s I'm so terribly in karaoke, but but I can help.

Presenter21:55

Marina, I want to ask you about a very important chapter in your creative life. The work you did with your former partner, the German artist Ulai. You created and performed some bold works together. Rest Energy, for example, included you holding a bow, Ulai holding the arrow, which was pointing directly at your heart, and then you both lean back until the bowstring is taut. One false move, and you would have been dead. You described yourselves back then as one creative entity, the self. It must have felt so powerful to be part of that.

Marina Abramović22:27

Only I can say about this piece, this was based on trust. And each of us had um little microphone on the heart and you can see how Adernan is rushing and the and the heart is beating crazy. And it was really the shortest piece we ever made in our life. It's four minutes and twenty seconds and for me it was it was like forever.

Presenter22:48

Mm-hmm.

Presenter22:49

It's still my heart was in my mouth watching it at the Royal Academy as part of the show where the video is there.

Marina Abramović22:54

It's intense.

Presenter22:55

I don't know.

Marina Abramović22:55

I know. E even even for me, I don't want to really talk about parts and be sentimental, but this piece always gets me.

Presenter23:03

The two of you created a manifesto for life and art in nineteen seventy seven. You presented your values, and they include having no fixed living place and a commitment to permanent movement. So it was a very nomadic period in your life. You were living on a bus with your dog, very few possessions, traveling all the time.

Marina Abramović23:22

Incredibly happy moment.

Presenter23:24

What did you learn then? You loved it?

Marina Abramović23:26

It was incredible. It was no compromise of any kind. We hardly have any money to live on. We had nothing. We went to do in different places in the mountains. I remember in Sardinia, we went to this little place of Gosla, and the shepherds would give us jobs to milk the sheep in the morning. We are talking 120 sheep, 5.30 to 6.7 in the morning, and then we will make pecorino or cheese with them. I was walking in wooden shoes and woolen socks, which I knit, because we didn't have nothing. I will never change that. It was so important to me to be radical, to do what I love with the man I love. We didn't have nothing. But that nothing was the beginning of everything. You felt free.

Presenter24:05

Yeah.

Marina Abramović24:09

Yeah, free. It's time for tea.

Presenter24:11

Uh

Marina Abramović24:11

Yeah.

Presenter24:11

Yeah.

Marina Abramović24:11

Rescue six. Yeah.

Presenter24:13

Be now.

Marina Abramović24:13

In the 1970s, end of the 70s, Una and me went first time to India together. And the first time we went, we went to Bodh Gaya, which is the place where actually Buddha got enlightenment, on the city on the Bodhi tree. So we spent lots of time with the Tibetan community. And also we met His Holiness Dalai Lama. We met his teacher, Ling Rinpoche, who really was incredibly important for me to understand the meaning of Buddhism as a philosophy. And Tibetan chanting of Heart Sutra is something that I really love. And this is something I choose.

Marina Abramović24:49

Um

Speaker 424:50

I am not a man.

Presenter25:19

The Heart Sutra Chant by the Tashi Lumpo Monks. Marina, in 1997 you were awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for a work called Balkan Baroque which was a response to the war in the former Yugoslavia. You spent as part of that piece four days scrubbing a huge pile of bloodied cowbones. The cleaner they became the more covered in blood you were. Talk me through creating that piece. It must have been emotionally very close to home.

Marina Abramović25:46

To make the work that I'd done for my own country took me three years. You know, every artist is responding so easily, but to me it was so close. I was so ashamed of the war. I could not do it like that, you know, on the request. And it took me a very, very long time to approach from the right angle. I have this huge pile of cow bones, and you know, we are talking Venice, Biennale, we are talking 30 degrees Celsius, incredibly hot in the summer in the basement, smell was unbearable, warmth was coming out of the bones, and you know, while we are doing, so it was smell was a very important element, and also that you never can wash the blood from your hands one was done. And I was thinking, I need to create something that is transcendental, something that can be any war, anytime, anywhere. And right now, I'm showing this piece in the Rawl Academy, and I have incredible reaction. People from Palestinia, from Ukraine, from Israel, they come and they stay in that room the longest because I'm talking to all the wars everywhere. And that's really important. You have to create something that actually deals with a much larger perspective than just your own. It was incredibly brutal to smell and to do what I've been doing. It's so bloody hard. I became vegetarian after that. I could not watch the smell anymore.

Presenter27:06

Mm-hmm.

Presenter27:11

You have talked about works that have changed you, Marina. I mean, you know, I'm wondering about your sense of identity when I'm talking about Bulk and Baroque, but there was another piece that you said changed you completely. The artist is present. 2010, it was in New York City. You sat in complete silence while more than 1,500 people queued to sit opposite you. They couldn't speak to you, they couldn't touch you, but they could share your gaze and they could stay in front of you for as long as they liked. So members of the public, as well as artists like Bjork and your former partner, Ulai, all took part. There is a simplicity to it. It must have been as difficult as it appears to be simple, this piece. People found it incredibly moving, and I know that you did too. What was the thinking behind it?

Marina Abramović27:58

So first of all

Marina Abramović28:00

In many of your questions you always want me to admit my change and I'm always trying to avoid and to kind of reject. But now I have to give up. So first of all, what's happened is every piece brings the change. From the beginning, from my first performance, you know, Rhythm 10, every single piece, you know, I learn something and that's what I learned bring me to the next work, next work, next work. So it's really process. And then works become more demanding, more difficult, more demanding, difficult, difficult, difficult. The Balkan Baroque of course the change, but I think that really the most difficult piece that I ever made in my life, it was Artist's Present. Because it was the most painful, the most difficult, and every day could be the last. The whole skin was in pain. My back was hurting, my legs were swallowed. You know, it's not natural to be emotional that way. I have to train for this piece an entire year, you know, like astronaut. I have to change my metabolism that I eat in the night only and sleep and drink enough water so that during the day I don't have any of this necessity. It was one year training, you know, and what happened there is that

Presenter28:17

Mm-hmm.

Marina Abramović29:17

I experience unconditional love. I develop unconditional love for every human being sitting in front of me, old, young, sick, healthy, child, whoever. And this was opening of the heart, which is really painful. It's like your heart opened for the universe. And I absolutely understand that something does to me. That I when I stand up from the chair, I'm different. And I was a different person.

Presenter29:47

Marina Abramovitch, it's time for your next piece of music.

Marina Abramović29:51

I was seventeen years old when I got this music to listen for my seventieth birthday, and this was Concerto Twenty one, C major.

Marina Abramović30:01

You know Mozart and we have now to listen here the most beautiful version of Mitsuko Chida which I listen live in Europe many times. But now why that music? This was the time I remember I was born 30th November is snowing in Belgrade. Everything is white outside and very quiet. And I'm sitting in my room and I'm listening to this music.

Marina Abramović30:27

And I just realized.

Marina Abramović30:29

For the first time ever,

Marina Abramović30:31

That actually I'm going to die. I'm mortal. I'm 70 years old, and the first idea that actually, oh my god.

Marina Abramović30:41

Everybody's going to die. Every day you're actually closer to your dad, whatever comes. That realization was incredibly strong and was related to this music.

Presenter31:52

Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. twenty one in C major, performed by Mitsuko Uchira and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Geoffrey Tate.

Presenter32:03

Marina, just a few months ago you had a brush with death, you had a pulmonary embolism and had to spend six weeks in intensive care. How are you now?

Marina Abramović32:11

Great.

Presenter32:12

You look fantastic. You're dominating the London arts scene. I mean, it's an extraordinary recovery.

Marina Abramović32:16

I still have pain in my leg because I didn't have enough physiotherapy time to recover. But it doesn't matter, you know, I don't care. I'm really happy. I take a shower and sing. I never sing in the shower before. There's something like a realization that it's not my time yet. And all this new energy is given to me.

Presenter32:38

Marina, I'm about to cast you away to your desert island. For someone who is a performance artist.

Presenter32:44

How does the idea of solitude appeal?

Marina Abramović32:46

Oh, I love solitude. I spent three months in in the forest, in a cell, just repeating mantra. And and I finished mantra after three months repeating one million one hundred thousand one time. And I only had one meal which the monastery brings me up in the mountain, I didn't see nobody. And then the meal is only eaten before mid twelve o'clock and then put the dish outside. And after three months, when I finished this one million whatever mantras, I s send message to monastery and they bring me down and I have to burn all my possessions and then I was ready to go. And so solitude is something I love. I don't love l loneliness is one thing. With loneliness you suffer. But solitude is, for an artist, is absolutely necessity.

Presenter33:41

Well, I think the the island might inspire you then. Before we send you there, Marina Abramovich, one more music choice.

Marina Abramović33:48

What about the the trashy, the the bullshit marina? Now we get in the real deal. Okay, so Jack Smith is i a very interesting artist. Not many people know about him, but he was he comes from the sixties and seventies, you know, and I traveled with him for a while, Ula and me. And he will always play the Andrew Sisters, and I got completely addicted to this music and I love it, it's so trashy. Now we're going to listen.

Marina Abramović34:17

Rum and Coca-Cola.

Marina Abramović34:19

By the Andrew Sisters.

Speaker 434:25

If you ever go down Trinidad, they make you feel so very glad Calypso sing and make up rhyme Guarantee you one real good fine time Drinking rum and coca

Speaker 434:41

Go down for incuman.

Speaker 434:44

Both mother and daughter working for the Yonke Dala A Buddhist Miner

Presenter34:54

The Andrew Sisters, Rum and Coca-Cola. So, Marina Abramovich, I'm going to send you away to the island. I'm giving you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. You can also take one other book. What will that be?

Marina Abramović35:06

I would like Ospensky's Search for Miraculous. You know, I really love Gorgiev. You know, such interesting character who was a teacher, also in some kind of shaman in the same time. And he wrote these books about Bezebub, which is so difficult to read, but Ospensky find a way how to translate his teachings for the the the people who understand in much kind of simpler way.

Presenter35:30

So this is esoteric philosophy. Is that right?

Marina Abramović35:31

Is that Eric?

Presenter35:32

Yeah.

Marina Abramović35:33

Ouspensky was his t student and he actually created Search for Imarcross to explain the Gorgio to decode him because it was very complicated to understand.

Presenter35:44

Good for spiritual, Marina, as well. So you've got the book. You will also have a luxury item, Marina.

Marina Abramović35:46

Yeah, I

Marina Abramović35:51

I know the island could be warm, but I don't care because the one thing that I'm living in is blanket, is a cashmere made, is a triple four time knitted cashmere, very thick, and it literally is a blanket. It's great for the winter, for the aeroplanes, for you know, sleeping on it, making tent out of it, it's multipurposal. And I love this is something always said with me.

Presenter36:16

The Cashmere blanket is yours. And finally, which track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you save from the waves first?

Marina Abramović36:23

I would try to save Tibetan chanting.

Presenter36:27

Why?

Marina Abramović36:27

You know, because this is the only one who really work on energetic level. When you listen to this, it's not just uh it's not the music, it's vibration. And this vibration really work on your molecular system and can put you in a certain state of mind which other music can't.

Presenter36:45

Marina Abramovitch, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Marina Abramović36:50

That's it.

Presenter36:52

Uh

Marina Abramović36:54

I love the story of Desert Island. It's it's something that can always work because on the end of t

Marina Abramović37:00

On the day we need desert island. We need even if it's not real, we need to have in our mind somewhere desert island that we can go and rest.

Presenter37:23

Hello. It was lovely to chat to Marina, and I hope she's very happy on her island with her blanket, enjoying the solitude, and coming up with her next idea. There are more than 2,000 programmes in our archive which you can listen to. We've cast many artists away over the years, including David Hopney, Sonia Boyce, and Peter Doig. You can find all of those programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or on our own Desert Island Discs website. The studio manager for today's programme was Jackie Marjoram and the producer was Sarah Taylor. Join me next time when my castaway is the dancer and head judge on BBC Strictly Come Dancing, Shirley Ballas.

Speaker 238:29

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Speaker 238:36

It's about one of the most important things that we all do every single day. It's about what we eat.

Speaker 238:42

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