© Mutesouvenir (Kai Bienert)
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July 31 to August 2, 2026: Events, festivals, exhibitions and more things to do for your perfect weekend in Berlin. more
Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Stage Version
Date details
- Date Wednesday, 14/October/2026 19:30 ( 4 more dates )
- Venue Haus der Berliner Festspiele - Große Bühne
- Address Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf
Public transportation
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Underground
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U Spichernstr.
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- U3
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U Uhlandstr.
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U Kurfürstendamm
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- U1
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U Augsburger Str.
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U Hohenzollernplatz
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U Güntzelstr.
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U Spichernstr.
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Bus
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Friedrich-Hollaender-Platz
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Lietzenburger Str./Uhlandstr.
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U Spichernstr.
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- 204
- 249
- N3
- N9
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- S7B
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Pariser Str.
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U Uhlandstr.
- 109
- 110
- M19
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U Kurfürstendamm
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- 204
- 249
- N3
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- 110
- M19
- M29
- N10
- X10
- M46
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Berlin, Bleibtreustr.
- 109
- 110
- M19
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U Hohenzollernplatz
- N3
- 249
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U Güntzelstr.
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- N7X
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Theater des Westens
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- M49
- X34
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Bamberger Str.
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Uhlandstr./Kantstr.
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- M49
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Friedrich-Hollaender-Platz
Part of:
Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Stage Version
Performing Arts Season 2026/2027
Marina Abramović, Women Massaging Breasts aus der Serie Balkan Erotic Epic, C-Print, 2005, Serbia – Frauen mit schwarzen Kopftüchern und knielangen Röcken massieren ihre nackten Brüste. Dabei schauen sie in den Himmel.
© Marina Abramović. Courtesy der Marina Abramović Archives
With Balkan Erotic Epic, performance icon Marina Abramović returns to her roots – transforming Balkan myths into a rapturous ritual of body, shame and life force. An intense invocation of the erotic as a source of energy, insight and community.
With Balkan Erotic Epic, Marina Abramović presents one of the most radical and at the same time sensuous works of her career. The great pioneer of performance art returns to her roots – unleashing a new, collective energy out of it. Inspired by the erotic rituals and folk myths of the Balkans, her homeland, the artist creates a polyphonic hymn to life force: raw, archaic, overwhelming.
Balkan Erotic Epic is more than a performance – it is a conjuring. Building on her 2005 video work of the same name, Abramović unfolds a powerful new work exploring female energy, shame, desire, and the relationship between body and history. Premiered as an immersive performance in Manchester in October 2025, the Performing Arts Season will present the stage version of Balkan Erotic Epic in 2026 for the first time in Germany.
Singers, dancers and musicians bring to life a sequence of scenes oscillating between celebration, prayer and liberation. Bodies enact a feverish ritual, writhing on the ground in a desperate call for fertility. Women massage their bare breasts to awaken the earth, or bare themselves under the open sky to ward off storms. Here, eroticism appears not as allure but as primal force, a language beyond shame, morality and control.
As in earlier key works – the physically extreme cleansing ritual Balkan Baroque (1997) or the silent encounter The Artist is Present (2010) – Abramović probes the boundaries between body, consciousness and audience. But where she once confronted her audience with a quiet, singular presence, here she unfolds a collective physical experience of a new dimension and complexity.
Balkan Erotic Epic connects to the spiritual and political power of Abramović’s oeuvre while ushering it into a new phase: more communal, sensuous and ritualistic. She returns to the myths and tensions of her homeland, where eroticism, pain and belief intersect. It is a return to origins – and simultaneously a departure toward a future in which the erotic becomes a source of insight, healing and power.
Born in Belgrade in 1946, Marina Abramović is a central figure in performance art. Since the 1970s, she has rigorously explored the limits of body, pain, endurance and presence. In her early works, she put her own life and body at risk (Rhythm 0, 1974). Together with the artist Ulay, she developed intense duo performances exploring intimacy, connection and separation. One of her most recognised works worldwide is The Artist is Present, in which she sat silently across from visitors at MoMA for hours – an iconic moment of still encounter and radical presence.
Artistic Team
Balkan Erotic Epic created by Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović – Artist, Director, Concept, Design
Georgine Maria-Magdalena Balk – Associate Director
Blenard Azizaj – Direction of the Choreography
Billy Zhao – Durational Performance Director
Nabil Elderkin – Film Director
Marko Nikodijević – Composer
Luka Kozlovački – Composer / Sound Designer
Urs Schönebaum – Lighting Designer
Anna Schöttl – Set Designer
Roksanda Ilinčić – Costume Designer
Sonia Alcón, Fredrik Nordbeck – Animation
Marco Anelli – Photography
Svetlana Spajić – Creative Consultant / Singer
Aleksandar Timotić – Creative Consultant / Singer
Dragana Jovanović – Creative Consultant / Singer / Band Leader
Elke Luyten – Performance Artist / Co-Creator of the Role
Maria Stamenković Herranz – Performance Artist / Co-Creator of the Role
Rowan Schratzberger – Assistant Choreographer
Georg Veit – Associate Lighting Designer
Helene Schönebaum – Assistant Set Designer
Tigger Blaize – Intimacy Coordinator
Shanti Freed – Costume Collaboration and Supervisor
Rafi Gokay Wol – Creative Consultant / Executive Producer for Marina Abramović
Yasemin Kandemiroğlu – Creative Consultant / Producer for Marina Abramović
Complete cast of Balkan Erotic Epic
With Balkan Erotic Epic, Marina Abramović presents one of the most radical and at the same time sensuous works of her career. The great pioneer of performance art returns to her roots – unleashing a new, collective energy out of it. Inspired by the erotic rituals and folk myths of the Balkans, her homeland, the artist creates a polyphonic hymn to life force: raw, archaic, overwhelming.
Balkan Erotic Epic is more than a performance – it is a conjuring. Building on her 2005 video work of the same name, Abramović unfolds a powerful new work exploring female energy, shame, desire, and the relationship between body and history. Premiered as an immersive performance in Manchester in October 2025, the Performing Arts Season will present the stage version of Balkan Erotic Epic in 2026 for the first time in Germany.
Singers, dancers and musicians bring to life a sequence of scenes oscillating between celebration, prayer and liberation. Bodies enact a feverish ritual, writhing on the ground in a desperate call for fertility. Women massage their bare breasts to awaken the earth, or bare themselves under the open sky to ward off storms. Here, eroticism appears not as allure but as primal force, a language beyond shame, morality and control.
As in earlier key works – the physically extreme cleansing ritual Balkan Baroque (1997) or the silent encounter The Artist is Present (2010) – Abramović probes the boundaries between body, consciousness and audience. But where she once confronted her audience with a quiet, singular presence, here she unfolds a collective physical experience of a new dimension and complexity.
Balkan Erotic Epic connects to the spiritual and political power of Abramović’s oeuvre while ushering it into a new phase: more communal, sensuous and ritualistic. She returns to the myths and tensions of her homeland, where eroticism, pain and belief intersect. It is a return to origins – and simultaneously a departure toward a future in which the erotic becomes a source of insight, healing and power.
Born in Belgrade in 1946, Marina Abramović is a central figure in performance art. Since the 1970s, she has rigorously explored the limits of body, pain, endurance and presence. In her early works, she put her own life and body at risk (Rhythm 0, 1974). Together with the artist Ulay, she developed intense duo performances exploring intimacy, connection and separation. One of her most recognised works worldwide is The Artist is Present, in which she sat silently across from visitors at MoMA for hours – an iconic moment of still encounter and radical presence.
Artistic Team
Balkan Erotic Epic created by Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović – Artist, Director, Concept, Design
Georgine Maria-Magdalena Balk – Associate Director
Blenard Azizaj – Direction of the Choreography
Billy Zhao – Durational Performance Director
Nabil Elderkin – Film Director
Marko Nikodijević – Composer
Luka Kozlovački – Composer / Sound Designer
Urs Schönebaum – Lighting Designer
Anna Schöttl – Set Designer
Roksanda Ilinčić – Costume Designer
Sonia Alcón, Fredrik Nordbeck – Animation
Marco Anelli – Photography
Svetlana Spajić – Creative Consultant / Singer
Aleksandar Timotić – Creative Consultant / Singer
Dragana Jovanović – Creative Consultant / Singer / Band Leader
Elke Luyten – Performance Artist / Co-Creator of the Role
Maria Stamenković Herranz – Performance Artist / Co-Creator of the Role
Rowan Schratzberger – Assistant Choreographer
Georg Veit – Associate Lighting Designer
Helene Schönebaum – Assistant Set Designer
Tigger Blaize – Intimacy Coordinator
Shanti Freed – Costume Collaboration and Supervisor
Rafi Gokay Wol – Creative Consultant / Executive Producer for Marina Abramović
Yasemin Kandemiroğlu – Creative Consultant / Producer for Marina Abramović
Complete cast of Balkan Erotic Epic
Commissioned by Berliner Festspiele; Factory International, Manchester; Gran Teatre del Liceu; Park Avenue Armory; Ruhrtriennale; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; and WestK Performing Arts, Hong Kong
Produced by Factory International, Manchester
Berliner Festspiele, celebrating their 75th birthday in 2026, present Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Stage Version is a highlight of this anniversary year’s programme. The artist’s exhibition of the same name, Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition, will open in spring.
Produced by Factory International, Manchester
Berliner Festspiele, celebrating their 75th birthday in 2026, present Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Stage Version is a highlight of this anniversary year’s programme. The artist’s exhibition of the same name, Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition, will open in spring.
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