Performance
interdisciplinary artist
"To understand Maria Stamenković Herranz's performance, it is important to be physically presentand emotionally involved, observing and revisiting the performance at different times of the day and week. After she has broken all of the walls down and the audience is confronted by just piles of bricks, we the public are left with a different emotional responses about life and death and the fragility and temporary nature of human existence".
Marina Abramović
"She encourages participation, demands an act of responsibility and freedom from the active spectator, confirming that the performance is indeed a cathartic transformation for the artist but firmly rests on the relationship between the two parties, an experience of mutual emancipation".
Marianna Gelussi
selected projects:
BOOK: "This Mortal House Building1" ed. Palais Books 2023
The book «This Mortal House Building 1» by Maria Stamenković Herranz, published by Palais Books, aims to translate the artist’s performance at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul, into an editorial form.
For 24 days, MSH constructed a blindfolded maze of bricks within the museum’s space, only todestroy it on the final day.
Using numerous photographs documenting theperformance, the book offers a non-linear reading experience, subject to itsown constructions and deconstructions.
Unbound, like a journal, the reader is invited to follow two sets of numbering, one in Arabic numerals and the other in Roman numerals. The first reading provides a chronological account of the event, while the second grants access to additional texts and images. These different paths lead to both a visual andmental labyrinth. By folding, unfolding, and assembling the sheets in various ways, readers areencouraged to alter their experience of the book and gain a uniqueunderstanding of the performance.
Launch: 9 November 2023 at Polycopies Paris
Signing: 11 November at Polycopies Paris
Palais Books Editions
FAIR: Paris Photo 2023
Partecipating in Main Sector with Gallery Martch Art Project Istanbul
PERFORMANCE ART: This Mortal House Building 2, 2022
PERFORMANCE ART: This Mortal House Building 1, 2020
PERFORMANCE ART: Other Projects
"Metamorphosis of Landscapes", Art Biennal of bangkok, 2021, commissioned by Marina Abramovic Institute
"Fragile Panic", Martch Art Project Gallery, Instabul, 2022
"Medea", Benaki Museum Athens, 2016, commissioned by Marina Abramovic Institute
FEATURED IN: AnOther Magazine
FEATURED IN: Art Books
SHORT BIO
Maria Stamenkovic Herranz is a Spanish-Serbian performance interdisciplinary artist. She graduated from the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London and Maggie Flanigan Acting Studio in New York.
Over the course of thirty years, her body has been her prima materia. Her work uncovers the power of the resilient body and underscores the present body inhabiting time and space with and in relation to the viewer. It incorporates various mediums - performance, theatre, visual arts - to explore her fascination in breaking pre-established notions of cultural narratives and myths.
Since 1998 MSH has presented her work internationally in a diverse range of contexts and forms: Fragile Panic (Martch Art Gallery, Istanbul, 2022), This Mortal House Building 2 (Carré Theater, Amsterdam, 2022), Metamorphosis of Landscapes (Art Biennale of Bangkok, 2021), This Mortal House Building 1 (Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul, 2020), Medea: Impulse & Ear (Benaki
Museum, Athens, 2016).
She has collaborated extensively with other artists in film, photography, media, choreography, theatre and performance in acclaimed venues such, amongst others, Jan Fabre (Je suis sang & History of Tears, Cour d'Honneur Palais des Papes, Avignon, 2005-2007), Marina Abramovic (The Artist is Present, MoMa, New York, 2010) and Deborah Kampmeier (Split, Sarasota Film Festival,
2016).
