BELGRADE: The boundary-pushing performance artist Marina Abramovic returned to Belgrade Saturday to inaugurate the final exhibition of a major touring retrospective, marking her first professional homecoming in nearly 50 years.
Dressed in black, the 72-year-old invited reporters to Belgrade’s Contemporary Art Museum at dawn for the “symbolic cleansing of her career.”
The retrospective, titled “The Cleaner,” exhibits more than 100 works from Abramovic’s past 50 years of provocative performances, many of which saw the artist put her own body on the line.
“You know for me it’s very emotional to be here, and it’s not easy, there’s lots of nostalgia, lots of memories that are forgotten,” she said of her return to the Serbian capital, a place she said shaped her outlook as an artist.
“I learned three things here: from my grandmother I learned spirituality … from my father I learned bravery, and from my mother willpower and discipline,” she said.
The exhibition, which has been touring Europe since 2017, features photo montages and video reels replaying many of Abramovic’s most daring works, including one where she laid out a table of 72 objects, among which figured scissors and a loaded gun, and invited spectators to use them on her “as desired.”
Another piece from 1997, titled Balkan Baroque, saw her sit and clean 1,000 beef bones while singing folk songs from her youth, earning her a Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale.
Young Serbian artists also re-enacted some performances live on Saturday, including one in which a naked man and woman stand inside a doorway, forcing museum-goers to squeeze past their bodies.
Doling out advice for youth, the artist said: “It is very important to follow your heart, your ideas, without compromising.”
“To live for your art, which requires a lot of sacrifice,” she added.
At the start of the exhibition, Abramovic briefly sat down to re-enact a 2010 performance in New York named “The Artist is Present.”
That three-month-long piece saw her sit silently, without moving, for seven hours a day, six days a week, as visitors took turns sitting across her.
Asked if she would use her fame to bring more support to Serbian artists, Abramovic said:
“I am not a politician, but an artist, and I believe that this exhibit will show politicians that investing in culture will bring it to higher levels.”
The exhibit will be open in Belgrade until January 20, 2020.
Performance artist Marina Abramovic returns to native Belgrade for retrospective
Performance artist Marina Abramovic returns to native Belgrade for retrospective
- ‘You know for me it’s very emotional to be here, and it’s not easy, there’s lots of nostalgia, lots of memories that are forgotten’
- Doling out advice for youth, the artist said: ‘It is very important to follow your heart, your ideas, without compromising’
How science is reshaping early years education
DUBAI: As early years education comes under renewed scrutiny worldwide, one UAE-based provider is making the case that nurseries must align more closely with science.
Blossom Nursery & Preschool, which operates 32 locations across the UAE, is championing a science-backed model designed to close what it sees as a long-standing gap between research and classroom practice.
“For decades, early years education has been undervalued globally — even though science shows the first five years are the most critical for brain development,” said Lama Bechara-Jakins, CEO for the Middle East at Babilou Family and a founding figure behind Blossom’s regional growth, in an interview with Arab News.
She explained that the Sustainable Education Approach was created to address “a fundamental gap between what we know from science and what actually happens in nurseries.”
Developed by Babilou Family, the approach draws on independent analysis of research in neuroscience, epigenetics, and cognitive and social sciences, alongside established educational philosophies and feedback from educators and families across 10 countries. The result is a framework built around six pillars; emotional and physical security, natural curiosity, nature-based learning, inclusion, child rhythms, and partnering with parents.
Two research insights, Bechara-Jakins says, were particularly transformative. “Neuroscience shows that young children cannot learn until they feel safe,” she said, adding that stress and inconsistent caregiving can “literally alter the architecture of the developing brain.”
Equally significant was evidence around child rhythms, which confirmed that “pushing children academically too early is not just unhelpful — it can be counterproductive.”
Feedback from families and educators reinforced these findings. Across regions, common concerns emerged around pressure on young children, limited outdoor time and weak emotional connections in classrooms. What surprised her most was that “parents all sensed that something was missing, even if they couldn’t articulate the science behind it.”
At classroom level, the strongest body of evidence centres on secure relationships. Research shows that “secure attachments drive healthy brain development” and that children learn through trusted adults. At Blossom, this translates into practices such as assigning each child “one primary educator,” prioritising calm environments, and viewing behaviour through “a neuroscience lens — as stress signals, not misbehaviour.”
Bechara-Jakins believes curiosity and nature remain overlooked in many early years settings, despite strong evidence that both accelerate learning and reduce stress. In urban centres such as Dubai, she argues, nature-based learning is “not a luxury. It is a developmental need.”
For Blossom, this means daily outdoor time, natural materials, gardening, and sensory play — intentional choices aimed at giving children what science says they need to thrive.
