Marina Abramović’s opera film to premiere on giant digital screen in London

Marina Abramovic’s film opera is set to be screened on the world’s largest digital canvas in London.

The Serbian performance artist will present a film version of her work, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, on a giant screen in London’s West End in autumn 2021.

Conducted by Yoel Gamzou and directed by Abramovic, the show is the artist’s first opera. It is based on the life story of American-Greek soprano Maria Callas and her intense love affairs, with which Abramović says she closely identifies.

The film debut is part of a public art programme devised by video artist Marco Brambilla and media company Outernet. The work will be screened on the Now Building, an interactive set of screens located at the entrance of Tottenham Court Road station as part of a new arts space that is set to become the world’s largest digital exhibition venue. Brambilla compared the upcoming art centre to Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, with a programme designed “to create an intimacy between the viewer and the artist while presenting work on an unprecedented scale using state-of-the-art technology”.

“The Outernet Arts programme and curator Marco Brambilla are giving me a great opportunity to use the largest screens in the world to exhibit,” says Abramovic in a statement. “I am very excited about this collaboration and the chance to present to the wider public my work The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas in such a unique way.”

The screening of Abramović’s work will also coincide with the opening of After Life, an exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts that brings together work spanning her 50-year career.