In 2026 Marina Abramović will be the first living woman artist to be featured in a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. The exhibition, titled Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy, will open to the public on May 6, 2026 on the occasion of the 61st. International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia and will remain on view until October 19, 2026. The event coincides with the artist’s 80th birthday and will create an intense confrontation between his innovative performance art and the Renaissance masterpieces that helped define the cultural identity of the lagoon city. Curated by Shai Baitel, Artistic Director of Shanghai’s Modern Art Museum (MAM), in close collaboration with Abramović, the exhibition will involve both the rooms of the permanent collection and the spaces designated for temporary exhibitions-a first in the museum’s history.
At the heart of Transforming Energy will be the dialogue between past and present, body and spirit, material and immaterial. Visitors will be invited to interact with a series of Transitory Objects - stone beds and structures enriched with embedded crystals - to be physically experienced by lying, sitting or standing on them, triggering what the artist calls a true “transmission of energy.” Alongside new works created especially for the occasion, famous works such as Imponderabilia (1977), Rhythm 0 (1974), Light/Dark (1977), Balkan Baroque (1997) and Carrying the Skeleton (2008) will be presented, along with projections of historical performances tracing crucial moments in the artist’s research.
One of the most significant nuclei of the exhibition will be the juxtaposition of Pieta (with Ulay) (1983) and Titian ’s Pieta (c. 1575-76), the Venetian artist’s last unfinished painting, completed by Palma the Younger. A juxtaposition intended to relate two visions of pain, transcendence and redemption, reread through Abramović’s contemporary lens and reaffirming the role of the human body as a site of suffering but also of spiritual elevation.
Abramović’s use of quartz, amethyst and other natural stones also recalls the Venetian mosaic tradition and Renaissance research on transformation, understood in both a material and metaphysical sense. By placing the visitor’s body at the center of the work, Abramović invites a slow, conscious and active mode of observation, transforming the experience of the exhibition into an opportunity for presence, participation and the possibility of inner change.
“I was 14 years old when my mother took me to the Venice Biennale for the first time,” said Marina Abramović. “We traveled by train from Belgrade, and when I came out of the station and saw Venice for the first time, I started crying. It was so incredibly beautiful-nothing like what I had ever seen. Since then, returning to Venice has become a tradition, and since receiving the Golden Lion in 1997, the city has always held a special place in my life. Now, as I prepare to celebrate my 80th birthday, I am coming back for an even more significant reason: to be the first female artist to present an exhibition that spans the exhibition route of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, including the permanent collection, with Transforming Energy. This is a profound honor and I am deeply moved by this opportunity.”
“The opening of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice to contemporary art, in conjunction with the International Art Biennale, has now become a regular and highly anticipated event,” said Giulio Manieri Elia, Director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia. “The museum thus renews its stimulating dialogue between ancient and modern art. Mario Mertz, Philip Guston, Georg Baselitz, Anish Kapoor and Willem De Kooning have been the protagonists of previous editions, and we are particularly honored and delighted that it is now the turn of Marina Abramović, the first female artist awarded the Golden Lion by the Venice Biennale in 1997. On this occasion she returns, with new works and iconic works, to celebrate her 80th birthday at the Gallerie dell’Accademia.”
“The Ministry of Culture is proud to celebrate artist Marina Abramović’s 80th birthday in Italy by hosting the exhibition Transforming Energy, first in Venice, at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, then in Rome at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. A pioneer of performance art, Marina Abramović is today an undisputed protagonist of art,” announced Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli.
“This is a transformative moment-not only for the Gallerie dell’Accademia, but for the role museums can play in the future,” added curator Shai Baitel. “Placing Marina Abramović’s work in the permanent collection puts the past and present in direct dialogue, inviting the public to experience that space with their own bodies.”
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| Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, in 2026 a major exhibition dedicated to Marina Abramović |
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