Marina Abramović exhibition review – Moco Museum, London

(Credits: Far Out / Moco Museum)

Mon 10 March 2025 7:00, UK

Mention the words “performance art”, and chances are, the name Marina Abramović will be invoked at some point in the conversation. The Serbian artist is one of the few members of her profession who has become a celebrity outside the insular art world. Beginning in the 1970s with daring feats of exertion and physical pain, most famously with the Rhythm series, she has forged a groundbreaking, decades-long career.

More recently, she became the closest thing to a mainstream celebrity that a performance artist can be with her exhibition The Artist Is Present, a 736-hour performance in which she sat in a chair while audience members took turns sitting opposite her. 

Healing Frequency, an exhibition at London’s new Modern Contemporary (Moco) Museum that is running until April 21st, is a different kind of performance art compared to the work for which Abramović is famous. She isn’t there, for one thing, but given that her celebrity has become something of an artistic liability since the success of The Artist Is Present, that is to its benefit. The exhibition is laid out in an entire wing of the museum and features 12 unique pieces of wooden furniture adorned with crystals of various sizes, shapes, and colours.

It is an interactive piece that turns the audience into participants rather than observers. As you move through the work, you can sit in straight-backed chairs face-to-face with an amethyst, lie on long tables with your head resting on a dark stone, and lean against crystals embedded in the wall at your forehead, chest, and hip height.

The piece is the culmination of decades of Abramović’s work. During her walk along the Great Wall of China, she “experienced various energy states” and came to believe that they were caused by the different minerals in the ground. She began to collect crystals all over the world and add them to furniture-like objects in the hope that the public might share the same energy states she felt during her journey. Her explorations into spirituality have taken her around the world to learn from Tibetan monks, Australian Aboriginal spiritual leaders, Brazilian shamans, and European mystics.

My trepidation going into the exhibition was that, as someone who does not ascribe to the belief that crystals have healing properties, the experience would fall flat. What I discovered was that no matter your relationship to crystals or spirituality, the installation provides a uniquely powerful experience. At a time when we are all constantly staring at screens or thinking about staring at screens, stepping into a space where your only task is to sit or lie on cold surfaces and see what happens is surprisingly enthralling.

(Credits: Far Out / Moco Museum)

We’ve all heard that meditation is good for us, but if you’re like me, that is much easier said than done. I found that when sitting in a chair, staring directly into the unfathomable depths of a purple crystal on the wall, my mind was blissfully open and unburdened, like a spring decompressing. There is a perspective shift when you take time to notice an object that has been created over millennia. You are literally faced with your own transience, and you might find, like I did, that it is unexpectedly liberating. 

It wasn’t all bliss, though. The stillness of the space and the simplicity of the objects create a heightened level of attentiveness that no doubt will strike audiences differently and take each person on their own internal journey. At one point, I saw my husband lying on one of the tables and was immediately overcome with a horrible sensation that he looked like a body about to undergo an autopsy.

“The response has been fascinating to witness,” Moco co-founder Kim Logchies Prins told me. “Some visitors approach with curiosity, while others are more hesitant […] When people allow themselves to lower their guard or do away with preconceptions and the expectations of others, we see a shift. There’s a stillness and taking this time for yourself is a gift, you allow yourself to become centred or grounded, even just for a moment.”

Like everyone who encounters the piece, Logchies Prins has had her own unique experience. “Engaging with the installation gave me a sense of graceful presence—of being an inhabitant of the artwork and playing a part in activating this environment,” she said. “The atmosphere is based on intention, it asks something of you. I remember feeling as though time itself had momentarily slowed; I felt grounded. And then there was a full circle moment when Marina and I sat across from each other at the opening of her show with us—both of us bonded by energy and time. I truly believe there is power in art and it moved something in me. It’s difficult to put into words, but that’s perhaps what makes it so powerful.”

This is the first time that the collection has been accessible in a museum environment, and it is well worth the visit. I was surprised by how long we spent there, mainly because, as Logchies Prins attested to, you lose track of time. If you do happen to visit, set aside a significant portion of your day. Once you emerge from the hushed, otherworldly space of Healing Frequency, you will have the opportunity to see one of London’s most starry and accessible art collections. There are pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, KAWS, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Banksy, Tracey Emin, and Damien Hirst, as well as an entire floor dedicated to digital art and NFTs. I wished I’d set aside the afternoon to be there and will undoubtedly be returning.

Healing Frequency runs until April 21st at the Moco Museum, London.

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