Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art, creating some of the form's most important early works. Exploring her physical and mental limits, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In 2010, Abramović had her first major U.S. retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in The Artist is Present at the Museum of Modern Art in New YorSince the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art, creating some of the form's most important early works. Exploring her physical and mental limits, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In 2010, Abramović had her first major U.S. retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in The Artist is Present at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Abramović founded Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a platform for immaterial and long durational work to create new possibilities for collaboration among thinkers of all fields. In 2023, Abramović was the first woman to have a solo show at the Royal Academy of Arts London. The Spirits of Maritime Crossing is an experimental short film that links Venice and Bangkok through the journey of a wandering spirit played by Marina Abramović. On her ghostly voyage, she searches for refuge and internal peace, encounters symbolic figures, and visits sacred places. Abramović emerges from San Michele in Venice, an intermediate realm that symbolizes the intersection between life and death. In Venice, the crowd draped in black encompasses the profound anguish of humanity: the pains of war, violence, and illness. By the enchanting banks of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, Abramović meets a shadow puppeteer who performs politically satirical scenes, alluding to the ongoing global conflicts. Prompted by the puppeteer and guided by a little monkey, Abramović starts a quest to find the Monkey Master. They navigate through the canals of Bangkok—the Venice of the East, and finally meet the Monkey Master at a Venetian Revival building. Abramović and the Monkey Master, played by Pichet Kluncun, then embarks on a pilgrimage through spiritual Bangkok. At the end of her transformative quest, Abramović realizes her soul has transcended her physical form and experiences a sense of relief. She returns to Venice and embraces solitude as she stands in the breeze of the maritime crossing, gazing at the sacred Santa Maria della Salute and gradually fading into ethereal realms. Abramović founded Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a platform for immaterial and long durational work to create new possibilities for collaboration among thinkers of all fields. In 2023, Abramović was the first woman to have a solo show at the Royal Academy of Arts London.