Marina Abramovic is a Serbian visual artist from Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She uses her body as a subject and medium to preform physical, mental, and emotional tests for herself. She pushes her limits in life in a quest for heightened consciousness, transcendence, and self-transformation. She is regarded as an artist who has addressed both feminist ideas and social issues.

This Balkan Baroque addresses the violent wars in Yugoslavia, Marina's home country. In this performance, Marina is sitting on top of a bunch of bloody cow bones, she is washing them one by one and singing songs from her childhood. This performance conveys violence and trauma to the former country. She scrubs the bones for 4 days and weeps as her clothes become stained. This piece of art struck me as something that was very disturbing at first until I read about the symbolism behind it. It's heartbreaking but the reality of war is truly trauma, violence, sadness, loss, etc.

Article: https://www.widewalls.ch/marina-abramovic-art/balkan-baroque/