THE COMPOSER by Marina Abramović

14 September 2002: Marina Abramović performs in the former Bolognini laundry shed in Brixen. A performance as dazzling as its genesis—the encounter with composer Jorge López and contemporary music. That same evening, the two artists present two world premieres. After performing López’s Vers La Flamme, the Basel Sinfonietta returns to the stage for The Composer by Marina Abramović, who takes her place at the conductor’s podium, centre stage.
The orchestra stands motionless, solemnly petrified with their instruments. López’s recorded voice, accompanied by a video showing his mouth in close-up, delivers a long monologue in German, explaining his score—the very one from the opera performed just moments earlier. Abramović conducts the orchestra with a fixed gaze and hieratic expression. Instead of a baton—a boa.
This extraordinary work is re-enacted by performer Kira O’Reilly as Abramović, accompanied by Klangforum Wien, within the context of another composition by López, Blue Cliffs.