A Different Way of Hearing - The Abramović-Method for Music

WED 20 – SUN 24 MARCH

ADVANCE TICKET SALES START AT 2 P.M. ON 11 OCTOBER

Marina Abramović © Dusan Reljin; Abbildungen Methode © Felipe Nieves for FLAGCX. Courtesy of Kaldor Public Art Projects and Marina Abramović Institute; 512 Hours © Marco Anelli. Courtesy of Marina Abramović Archives

Detailed project description
Biographies

Marina Abramović, one of the world's most known and influential artists, will create a new large-scale art project specifically for the Alte Oper in March 2019 combining music and the Abramović Method for Music to explore a different way of hearing in the form of a community event. "A Different Way of Hearing: The Abramović Method for Music", will be a unique and unprecedented community event in which the public encounters music through the lens of performance art and a communal sense of mindfulness.

Listening to live classical music often happens on a superficial level and in a scripted way, as we are too distracted by the tempo of life, external circumstances, thoughts, stress or smartphones. How can listening to music take place as an authentic, moving, profound, and transcendental experience?

As a central figure of performance and art for nearly 50 years, Marina Abramović explores the possibilities of body and mind by searching for personal and collective connection and transformation Her body has always been both the subject and medium of Marina Abramović's artistic work. From this artistic conception, Marina Abramović has developed her own method over the decades, letting the audience take part in a number of exercises. She is convinced that these exercises are the way back to one's self.

Marina Abramović has now devised a project for the Alte Oper in which the audience can arrive at a completely new experience of hearing music using A Different Way of Hearing: The Abramović Method For Music, a project in which the exercises of the method are inseparably linked with the act of attending a concert. Participants that engage physically and mentally with the purifying effects of the exercises will have the opportunity to experience the subsequent concert specifically designed for the Alte Oper on a deeper level.

For this reason, participation in the Abramović Method and admittance to the concert are inseparably combined as a unit. The participants enter into the concert, which is – like many of Abramović's works – marked by its long duration to share a unique listening experience with the musicians who also participated in the Abramović Method beforehand.

Participation is open to anyone interested with a minimum age of 16 years without restriction and requires no prior experience. Details on the procedure, single concert dates for the Abramović Method, the cast and concert program as well as on advanced ticket sales will be announced in autumn 2018 on www.alteoper.de/abramovic. You can subscribe today to our project newsletter on "A Different Way of Hearing: The Abramović Method for Music". Starting in autumn 2018, the newsletter will keep you informed as early as possible about the start of advanced ticket sales and further details.

Newsletter („A Different Way of Hearing. The Abramović Method for Music“) – subscription form