Marina Abramović has opened a new exhibition titled "Transforming Energy" at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, running concurrently with the Venice Biennale. Curated by Shai Baitel, the show spans the museum’s permanent collection and temporary exhibition spaces, featuring a timeline of the artist’s biography, video works, and interactive installations with crystals and stone objects. Abramović is the first living woman artist to receive a major solo exhibition at the museum, and the exhibition includes a digital avatar and rituals designed to slow down the viewer’s experience.
This exhibition matters because it confronts a central paradox in Abramović’s career: the tension between her lifelong use of the body as a means of resisting commodification and her current status as a global icon. By placing her work in dialogue with historical masters like Tiziano and by demanding contemplative participation from the audience, the show challenges the very notion of artistic celebrity. It also marks a significant institutional milestone for the Gallerie dell’Accademia, which has rethought its spaces to foster meditation, and for Abramović, who won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1997.