Is there really an energy transformation in Marina Abramović's exhibition in Venice?

At the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Marina Abramović's exhibition "Transforming Energy" opens to the public from May 9 to September 30, 2026, as part of the 2026 Venice Biennale. The show is designed as an experiential device that moves beyond traditional exhibition formats, inviting viewers to determine their own presence through a sequence of rooms built around relationships between body, materials, and time. Crystals and locks of hair function not as decoration but as presences to be inhabited, demanding radical attention rather than spectacular participation. During the press conference, Abramović and curator Shai Baitel insisted that the materials, especially the crystals, possess real energy capable of directly affecting the viewer's body and perception, not merely as metaphor but as an active condition.

The exhibition raises a critical question about whether the intensity it generates constitutes genuine transformation or merely its preliminary condition. This matters because it challenges the viewer's role, shifting from an active subject constructing meaning to someone who must accept a premise—that the energy is real and transformative. The article probes the tension between Abramović's long-standing vocabulary of energy, presence, and metaphysical passage, and the risk that such intensity might be consumed as spectacle rather than producing real change. This reflects broader debates in contemporary art about participation, authenticity, and the limits of experience-based works.