Marina Abramovic has already collaborated with Lady Gaga and Jay-Z, but now the veteran performance artist is looking to form her next high-powered partnership with Lars von Trier.
Abramovic poured her admiration into a open letter televised on Swedish public service broadcaster SVT: “Dear Mr Lars von Trier, I think you are the most disturbing director on this planet and this is why I’d really, really love to work with you."
You can watch her video appeal here. Abramovic says she first became interested in the Danish director after viewing his 1996 release Breaking the Waves, a depressing story where the long-suffering and abused female lead brutally dies.
The film gave Abramovic many sleepless nights, but while that would dissuade most from wanting to work with the director, Abramovic herself is already known for her durational works of performance art.
Her last piece, 512 Hours, saw people queue round the block so that Abramovic could alternately whisper in their ear or lead them around the Serpentine Gallery. She did this eight hours a day, for 64 days.
As she puts it in her video to von Trier: "You really bring the actors on the edge of complete nervous breakdowns, because I am a performance artist, I understand very well what you are doing.”
Abramovic wants to involve von Trier in her forthcoming film, Seven Deaths, which focuses on the untimely ends of seven classic opera heroines. He is one of many prominent filmmakers she hopes to get involved, with each incorporating their unique style of direction for a character.
Lars Von Trier and Marina Abramovic? This could be pure genius or a blunder of epic proportions. But Abramovic might be waiting a while for him to get back to her – von Trier recently announced that he will be pouring all his energies into his new TV series What Jack Built.
Watch the trailer for Breaking the Waves below:
