Britain | The world-famous performance artist made the audience quiet down at giant festivals

World famous contemporary artist, 77-year-old Serbian Marina Abramović held a special performance at the Glastonbury outdoor festival in Great Britain, says, among other things The Guardian.

The Glastonbury Festival, organized in the county of Somerset, is one of the world’s largest outdoor festivals. In addition to music, the program includes, for example, circus and other arts.

Abramović’s performance was also surprising at the performing arts festival: the artist came on stage on Friday between two musical performances and asked the audience to be silent for seven minutes.

He instructed people to close their eyes and put their hand on the shoulder of the person standing next to them, he says British broadcasting company BBC. With his performance, he wanted to highlight conflicts and violence.

“There are wars, there are famines, there are protests, there are killings. Here we are trying to do something different,” he said on stage, according to the BBC.

Artist told For The Guardian that he was nervous in advance, whether he would succeed in silencing the audience of several thousand people.

“I don’t know a single visual artist who has done something like this in front of 175,000-200,000 people. The biggest crowd I’ve ever had was 6,000 people in a stadium and I thought at the time, wow. But this completely surpasses the previous times.”

The artist was dressed in an outfit shaped like a peace sign. In Great Britain, the symbol is known for its original meaning as the logo of the CND campaign, i.e. the campaign aimed at nuclear disarmament. Glastonbury Festival has long supported the campaign.

According to the BBC, people did get quiet for seven minutes, but the music echoing from the surrounding stages and, for example, the notification sounds of cell phones, prevented complete silence.

Abramović is known for works that push the artist himself to the limit, both physically and mentally. In the famous Rhythm 0 -performance in 1974, he let the audience freely use different objects for six hours. In that case, his throat was cut and a loaded gun was held to his temple.

Abramović has been called the mother of performance art, and she is the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy in London during her lifetime.

Glastonbury Festival is considered one of the most important cultural events in Great Britain. This year, the festival’s artist line-up includes super names in popular music From Dua Lipa to Coldplay and About Avril Lavigne to The National.