Marina Markovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1983. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. MM is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in New Media at the University of Belgrade. Since 2006 she has exhibited extensively at various festivals, art fairs, group and solo exhibitions throughout Serbia, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Mexico and beyond. MM participated in artist-in-residence programs at ISCP (The International Studio & Curatorial Program) in New York, ZETA in Tirana and Q21 – MuseumsQuartier in Vienna. A Fellow of the Young Visual Artist Award and Dimitreije Basicevic Mangelos Award for 2011. MM lives and works in New York and Belgrade.

Body and embodiment are the central motives of Marina’s artistic practice, which spans from dealing with the personal experiences to the consideration of complex social questions posed in relation to the woman’s body. The experience of anorexia in her early adolescence has determined the direction of her artistic action towards body politics, (de)construction of gender and sexuality, the economy of power, and more importantly – unveiled a network of power relations in which the issues of coercion and free will have become inextricably interwoven. Over time her attitude toward the body ranged from objectification to the treatment of body rituals and the connection between physiological/biological/psychological/political experiences, whether those belonged to the artist directly or indirectly. Marina’s basic artistic strategy is to perform various activities that are, within society, designated as women’s, in various media – from drawings and tattoos, sewing and embroidery, installations, performances, videos or larger conceptual units. The longstanding corpo – realism (which Elizabeth Grosz denominates “the state of physical existence”) has allowed her to explore more closely the notions of pleasure and enjoyment (jouissance) within the life of a woman, as well as their connection to the concepts of control, restriction, rejection, punishment, alienation, (dis)obedience, as well as different forms of social reward. Through complex relationships of close but socially opposed concepts, Marina discusses disparate forms of public and intimate forms of subordination and domination.

Throughout her artistic practice, she trys to unveil various socio-political mechanisms of pressure, that is, the biopolitical imperative imposed on women by the heteropatriarchy, pointing to the extent to which the issues of freedom and coercion for a woman are inseparable.

www.marinamarkovic.com