Exhibitions
Marina Abramović confronts the fragility of life at the MUCAC La Coracha
The MUCAC Málaga presents one of Marina Abramović's most significant works at its La Coracha venue. The video art piece Self Portrait (2002/2013), from the Málaga City Council Collection, will be on display in the museum's Audiovisual Space from July 28 to October 11, 2026, offering the public a glimpse into some of the artist's main concerns: the vulnerability of the body, the awareness of mortality, and the spiritual dimension of existence.
Considered one of the most influential artists in contemporary art since revolutionizing the language of performance in the 1970s, Abramović has dedicated more than five decades to exploring the physical, emotional, and psychological limits of human existence. Her artistic production has investigated concepts such as resistance, pain, memory, presence, and the relationship between artist and spectator, always positioning the body as a territory for experimentation and knowledge.
Self Portrait is fully in line with this research. The video creation originated from the performance Nude with Skeleton , first performed in 2002 and later revisited by the artist, to address a question as universal as it is inevitable: the acceptance of death as an inseparable part of life.
The work draws some of its inspiration from a traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice in which monks live with the bodies of the deceased as a meditative exercise on impermanence. Through this ritual, the artist translates into audiovisual language a reflection on the finiteness of existence and the need to confront one of humanity's greatest fears.
In the piece, Abramović lies prone while a skeleton, rendered in the same proportions as her own body, rests upon her. The movement of her breath causes the skeleton to appear animated, establishing a haunting dialogue between life and death. Both dimensions coexist in the same image, transforming the skeleton into a permanent presence that accompanies humankind from birth and silently symbolizes its ultimate destiny.
More than a representation of death, Self Portrait offers a contemplative experience on the fragility of existence and the acceptance of the life cycle. The tension between stillness and breath, between presence and absence, places the viewer before an image of great emotional intensity that encapsulates some of the essential themes in Marina Abramović's work.
The artist herself has explained on several occasions that a fundamental part of her work consists of confronting her deepest fears. In this sense, living with the skeleton, observing it, or breathing alongside it constitutes, for Abramović, a way of understanding death and defusing the fear it inevitably evokes. With this exhibition, the MUCAC adds to its program a key work of contemporary video art that invites reflection on the human condition from an intimate, silent, and profoundly universal perspective.
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