BALCAN EROTIC EPIC
In dialogue with Marina Abramovic & Blenard Azizaj
FVTVRIST Magazine // November 10, 2025
Premiered in October 2025 at Factory International / Aviva Studios in Manchester, Balkan Erotic Epic is a four-hour performance integrating dance, music, and ritual. The work revisits ancestral Balkan practices through a contemporary lens, structuring collective movement as an act of endurance and transcendence. In conversation with FVTVRIST MAGAZINE, Marina Abramović and Blenard Azizaj discuss the development of the piece, the dynamics of their collaboration, and the convergence of dance and long-duration performance, a synthesis they frame as a distinct and novel artistic form.
“ Together We Created a New Form of Art -
Between long-durational performance and dance choreography."
Marina Abramović and Blenard Azizaj
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
THE ENCOUNTER
FVTVRIST: For today’s conversation, we would love to focus on the dance practice and the spiritual dimension of the performance. But before diving into that, let’s start from the very beginning - how did you meet?
Marina A.: We have two versions. I love both of them. Blenard?
Blenard A.: I live in Berlin and I’m very good friends with the conductor Teodor Currentzis. He’s also close to Luka and Marko, long-time collaborators of Marina. They had already worked on The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas and later became the composers of Balkan Erotic Epic.
One night, Teodor gave a concert at Funkhaus, Berlin. Afterward, he gathered close friends for an after-party. Luka and Marco were playing: the music was so mesmerizing, I couldn’t resist dancing. I love to dance; I love life. I approached Luka and asked, “Where are you from? What is this music?” He said Serbia. I said - Albania. We exchanged Instagrams and that was it.
A few months later, I received a call from an English number. I didn’t answer. I’m skeptical of unknown numbers. Can you imagine? I declined the greatest opportunity of my life: to work with Marina Abramović. Then I received an email from Rafi, her executive producer: “We’re looking for a choreographer. Marina is reimagining Balkan Erotic Epic. Would you join a Zoom in three days?” I was in shock. Three days later, I met Marina on Zoom, she was in Brazil, and from the first moment, I felt the connection. She’s incredibly intuitive. It felt destined. Everything began that night in Berlin.
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
FVTVRIST: It’s striking how everything connects. Marina, how was it for you?
Marina A.: For Balkan Erotic Epic, I stayed faithful to my team: Marko Nikodijević and Luka Kozlovacki, and began searching for a choreographer. I needed someone from my region. I have worked with Belgian choreographers before, but they don’t know the Balkans. So I asked Luka to find someone and he and Rafi suggested contacting Blenard. Three minutes into our Zoom call, I knew that it was a match made in heaven.
It feels like a purpose that existed long before we were born. We share the same vision of the world, the same sensibility, the same taste. For instance, two days ago, Blenard sent me a painting by Parmigianino - that exact image I’ve carried with me for years. How could he have known? But that’s the connection: we share the same feeling for aesthetics, for rhythm, for time itself.
NOVEL FORM OF ART
Marina A.: He comes from dance; I come from performance. Combining these opposites was fascinating. We created something that didn’t exist - a new form of art. Blenard, what do you think?
Blenard A.: For me, this collaboration came from heaven. It’s the first time Marina invited a choreographer into her own production, and on such a significant piece. I took it personally. I wanted it to be something never seen before. She gave me total trust. It was a blind date, but it felt like something that was meant to be. We also had incredible reviews, four and five stars from around the world, which surprised us, because normally they attack.
It was the first time for me working with long-durational performers: Marina’s form is unique. In dance, time is fixed, everything precise. When it comes to her, you must let time be. In her world, time dissolves, it ceases to exist.
Everything truly begins with exhaustion - when you believe you have no strength left - and in that state, something genuine appears. I’ve always been impatient, both as a person and as an artist. Stillness and silence used to frighten me. During rehearsals, Marina would simply say, “Relax. Wait.” From those moments of waiting, she gave me something almost indescribable - a kind of magic. It allowed me to enter her vision more deeply, to uncover new dimensions within my own work through her guidance. The process was immense, transformative, I’m still absorbing it.
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
Marina A.: What’s truly important is how easy it is to work with someone as talented as he is. Without that, this collaboration would never have happened.
I gave him only the story, nothing more. One of the rituals I shared was the Black Wedding, practiced in certain parts of the former Yugoslavia. When a very young man dies before marriage, he cannot be buried until he symbolically marries the most beautiful woman in the village. The woman then remains “married” to the corpse for a year before she can wed anew. It’s a deeply macabre ritual, but it carries an immense emotional charge. Blenard created extraordinary choreography! Truly mind-blowing. The depth of his understanding was remarkable. He’s not only Albanian; he carries within him echoes of Greek mythology, Balkan mourning traditions, ritual gestures - washing the body, dressing the body, carrying the body. It was incredible.
There's especially one scene where the widow dresses the naked corpse. Slowly, patiently. She puts on socks, shoes, and underwear. Every movement is deliberate. For a dancer, rhythm is usually continuous - one gesture flowing into the next. Here, rhythm stops. Time suspends.
And that’s what’s so beautiful: we entered each other’s worlds. I stepped into his, he stepped into mine. Together, we created something in between, something new. People keep talking about it, this fusion of long-durational performance and dance choreography — a new form of art that didn’t exist before. They were always separate worlds. Here, they merge. That’s what makes this production truly unique.
"And that’s what’s so beautiful: we entered each other’s worlds. I stepped into his,
he stepped into mine. Together, we created something in between, something new"
Marina Abramović on her collaboration with Blenard Azizaj
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
THE ALCHEMY OF COLLABORATION
Marina A.: The Knife Dance is an Albanian ritual performed only by women, specifically by sworn virgins. Blenard created an extraordinary choreography inspired by it. My role was to deconstruct certain elements, to stretch time, to create space for things to happen.
His version lasts forty-five or fifty minutes, full of energy and intensity. But I said, “Now we’ll do it for four hours.” That’s another reality. Four hours is hell. The dancers reach physical exhaustion, while the long-durational performers are used to working six, eight hours. When those two states meet, the result is magical: a fusion of energies that can’t be replicated.
Another example: we created an orgy at a funeral, where skeletons dance with red tongues. Blenard designed a slow-motion choreography where they attach these tongues to each other. At one point, a dancer’s tongue detached and fell. A dancer would normally stop to fix it, but a long-durational performer would take the tongue and continue dancing with it alone. That’s when something unpredictable happens: something you can’t choreograph.
That’s the beauty of this collaboration: the constant interplay between structure and chance, choreography and endurance. It’s a rare harmony. As I said in the beginning, on a deep level, we understand each other aesthetically, intuitively. It's a blessing. And it’s rare to find this kind of balance between two strong creators. Which brings me to a question - Blenard, do you feel that my ego ever obstructs our process?
Blenard A.: Not at all. We never had anything like that, there was no space for ego. From the very beginning, we were united by one shared purpose: to make this piece truly magical. We were all completely devoted to bringing this work to life.
There was no time for drama, no room for conflict - only commitment. In other projects I’ve seen how ego can destroy the creative process, creating tension and toxicity. Here, it was the opposite. This experience reminded me of something I’ve promised myself as an artist: wherever I work, I must help build a small world in which everyone can coexist - different, yet in harmony.
BLENARD AZIZAJ: BODY, TIME, AND TRANSFORMATION
FVTVRIST: It’s very powerful, what you’re describing. Blenard, this performance demands extreme duration and a deep transformation of self. It lasts four hours and involves around seventy performers. How do you prepare your body and mind to remain present for that length of time? I know you’re not dancing for all four hours, but you’re engaged throughout. What did you discover about your own limits, and how did you prepare the dancers for this?
Blenard A.: There were about seventy people involved: musicians, dancers, and long-durational performers. Thirty-seven of them were dancers for this warehouse version. Preparation came through relentless practice and making internal agreements with yourself. There’s no space to get tired, sick, or distracted; you have to be fully there, because it feels like a mission.
As dancers, and as I’m trained, both as a dancer and a choreographer, we have to create a world for others, to feed them with energy and inspiration so they can give it back. It must come from the heart to be true. From the very beginning, this project felt real. Everyone who worked with Marina understood that complete commitment was the only way - and they came ready for that.
On a practical level, I trained intensively. Each performer had their own inner process: meditation, personal rituals, it’s something intimate. During rehearsals, since I also teach, I tried to awaken their energy through movement and sound, sometimes playing techno or other raw music that helped them feel alive, combined with physical exercises to build stamina and, more importantly, a holistic readiness. We started with morning classes, continued with workshops, and by the time we entered creation, the dancers’ bodies were completely attuned to the process.
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
The long duration itself changes everything. I also dance in the kafana scene, which is one of my favorites. Kafana is Serbian - a tavern where people drink, tell stories, flirt, or share their pain through music. I dance there in three segments.
The first part is with Aleksandar; he sings, I dance. There’s a strong tension between us. He’s an opera singer, not a trained dancer, but he was incredible. So open, so present. We created a duet that felt powerful and alive. Then there is Maria, who represents Marina’s mother, Danica. And finally, the piece ends with a dance between Marina and me - a tango that is both tender and magnetic, while Aleksandar sings traditional Serbian songs.
That moment feels infinite. You could stay inside it for hours without exhaustion. It’s a space of emotion, beauty, and release for us and for the audience.
Marina A.: You should understand this feeling - the Slavic melancholy, the sense of tragedy that repeats itself. Like in a song: my heart is broken, I can’t live without you, life makes no sense. That’s the Slavic essence, this mixture of love, loss, and surrender. In the performance, we show it all: from Tito’s funeral to that deep, existential melancholy.
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
MARINA ABRAMOVIC : LEGACY AND COLLECTIVE BODY
FVTVRIST: Throughout your career, you have described your body as your primary material. In Balkan Erotic Epic, this idea expands to seventy performers. How does that evolution reflect where you are now as an artist?
Marina A.: Age, my dear, it’s simple. I’m turning eighty next year. I can’t work as I did when I was twenty, thirty, or forty. But now, I have so much knowledge to give to younger generations and to create a form that teaches presence, stillness, and time. At my institute, we train long-durational performers in a completely different way from Blenard’s dancers. His training is based on stamina and energy; ours involves silence, fasting, and meditative exercises that last for hours: three, four, five, six. Very different approaches, but when brought together, the result is a pure magic. I will continue sharing what I’ve learned, so others can use it in their own work.
FVTVRIST: What reflection do you hope Balkan Erotic Epic leaves with its audience today?
Marina A.: It’s interesting, all the newspapers and the audience said the same thing: there was nothing erotic in it. They spoke about vaginas as weapons, about transcendence, about elevating the human spirit. They talked about life, death, and love - the questions we rarely stop to confront. I’m proud it wasn’t seen as pornography or provocation, but as something deeper.
We created a work that turns the body into a vessel of meaning. I’m proud of that, and proud to have shared it with Blenard Azizaj and Billy Zhao The three of us built this piece together - a true collaboration. It feels like the right ending not only for this work, but for the journey we’ve shared.
Photo Credit: Marco Anelli ©
POSTSCRIPT
Balkan Erotic Epic marks another defining point in Marina Abramović’s trajectory. In collaboration with Blenard Azizaj, the piece extends Marina Abramović’s exploration of the body into a collective sphere, transforming movement into both discipline and transcendence. Its forthcoming staging at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in January 2026 will continue this dialogue between dance, time, and spirituality, revealing new dimensions of what the artists describe as a new form of art.
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