Marina Abramović will make history in 2026 as the first living woman artist to be honored with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.
Internationally acclaimed artist Marina Abramović will make history in 2026 as the first living woman artist to be honored with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy, presented during the 61st Venice Biennale Arte, will open on May 6, 2026 and run until October 19, 2026. The exhibition marks the artist’s 80th birthday and establishes a profound dialogue between her pioneering performance art and the Renaissance masterpieces that have shaped the cultural identity of Venice. Curated by Shai Baitel, Artistic Director of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai, in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition unfolds across both the museum’s permanent collection galleries and its temporary exhibition spaces — a first in the institution’s history — embedding Abramović’s practice within the very heart of Venetian patrimony.
At its core, Transforming Energy is an encounter between past and present, material and immaterial, body and spirit. Visitors are invited to experience a series of interactive Transitory Objects — stone beds and structures embedded with crystals — by lying, sitting, or standing upon them, activating what Abramović calls “energy transmission.” Iconic works such as Imponderabilia (1977), Rhythm 0 (1974), Light/Dark (1977), Balkan Baroque (1997), and Carrying the Skeleton (2008) appear alongside projections of early performances, while new works created for the occasion bring her decades-long exploration of endurance, vulnerability, and transformation into sharp relief.
A highlight of the exhibition is the presentation of Pietà (with Ulay) (1983), placed in direct dialogue with Titian’s Pietà (c. 1575-76), his fi nal, unfi nished masterpiece completed by Palma Giovane. This historic pairing, on the 450th anniversary of Titian’s Pietà, reframes Renaissance typologies of grief, transcendence, and redemption through a contemporary lens, and underscores the enduring role of the human body as a site of both suff ering and spiritual elevation.
In Venice — a city that has for centuries been a crossroads of culture, commerce, and the movement of rare materials — Abramović’s use of quartz, amethyst, and other natural elements resonates with the history of Venetian mosaic and the Renaissance pursuit of material and metaphysical transformation. By placing the visitor’s own body at the center of the work, the exhibition invites a durational form of looking: one that is less about passive observation and more about presence, participation, and the possibility of inner change.
Main Image: Copyright Clara Melchiorre