Marina Abramović will make history once again with an exhibition at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice, opening in May during the art biennale next year. She is the first living female artist to do so in the academy’s more than 250-year history. In 2023, Abramović became the first woman to have a solo show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, while in 1997 she became the first woman to be awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
The 2026 exhibition, titled Transforming Energy, first debuted at the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai last year. It was largely inspired by Abramović’s epic walk across the Great Wall of China, which she and her former partner, the late artist Ulay, undertook in 1998. The pair started at opposite ends of the wall and walked towards each other for 90 days, meeting in the middle to end their relationship, rather than marrying as originally planned. Shai Baitel, the artistic director of MAM, has curated the Venice show in collaboration with Abramović, who celebrates her 80th birthday next year.
The Great Wall Walk (1988/2008) will be represented at the Accademia alongside other historic performances, such as Rhythm 0 (1974), a six-hour performance at a gallery in Naples, for which Abramović stood in a room and invited visitors to use a variety of props including a candle, a comb, a lipstick, a gun and an axe on her as they wished. There will also be a re-enactment of Imponderabilia (1997), in which Abramović and Ulay stood naked in a doorway forcing onlookers to squeeze past them.
Newer pieces that incorporate precious stones such as quartz and amethyst will also go on show, as will Pietà (with Ulay) (1983), a photograph of Abramović cradling Ulay’s body on her lap. The latter work will be hung with Titian’s Pietà, the unfinished, final painting by the Renaissance master which celebrates its 450th anniversary this year.
In a statement, Abramović recalls the first time she visited the Venice Biennale with her mother aged 14. “We travelled by train from Belgrade, and as I stepped out of the station and saw Venice for the first time, I began to cry. It was so incredibly beautiful—unlike anything I had ever seen,” she says. “Since then, returning to Venice has become a tradition, and after receiving the Golden Lion in 1997, the city has always held a special place in my life.”
- Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy, Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice, 6 May-19 October 2026
