Marina Abramović, The Hero

Since antiquity, the mounted figure has occupied a central place in the visual imagination. Emperors, generals, conquerors and kings have been immortalised on horseback as symbols of authority, victory and power. From the equestrian monuments of ancient Rome to the military statues that continue to populate public squares around the world, the rider has traditionally embodied a particular vision of heroism, one closely tied to conquest, masculinity and the exercise of power.

In The Hero (2001), Marina Abramović returns to this enduring archetype and quietly transforms it. Seated upon a white horse and carrying a white flag, she adopts the visual language of heroism while removing the very qualities that have historically defined it. There is no battle to be won, no enemy to defeat and no territory to claim. Instead, the work unfolds through stillness. The horse breathes. The flag moves gently in the wind. Meaning emerges not through action but through presence.

Originally filmed shortly after the death of Abramović’s father, Vojin Abramović, a celebrated Yugoslav partisan and national hero who fought against fascism during the Second World War, The Hero occupies a deeply personal place within the artist’s practice. Created only weeks before the events of September 11 reshaped the political landscape of the twenty-first century, the work now resonates with renewed urgency. More than two decades later, as war returns to Europe, democratic institutions are tested and public trust continues to fracture, Abramović revisits this image as both a question and a proposition. What kind of heroes does our age require?

Presented across CIRCA’s global network of public screens throughout the summer of 2022, The Hero becomes a three-month meditation on courage, responsibility and collective imagination. Rather than celebrating exceptional individuals, Abramović invites audiences to consider heroism as an ethical position grounded in compassion, integrity and care. Accompanying the work is The Hero Manifesto, a new text written for CIRCA that reimagines her celebrated An Artist’s Life Manifesto for a world increasingly defined by uncertainty. In place of artistic ambition, Abramović proposes humility, forgiveness, self-knowledge and an awareness of mortality as the foundations of a heroic life.

The commission also extends into new digital territory through The Hero 25FPS, Abramović’s first NFT project and first exploration of the blockchain as an artistic medium. Developed in collaboration with CIRCA on the Tezos blockchain, the work transforms The Hero into a distributed performance, allowing participants to collect individual frames and sequences from the original film. Continuing Abramović’s long-standing interest in immaterial forms of exchange between artist and audience, the project explores how performance might exist beyond physical space while supporting a new generation of creative practitioners through the Hero Grants initiative.

Throughout her career, Abramović has consistently challenged audiences to reconsider the relationship between endurance, vulnerability and transformation. From Rhythm 0 (1974) to The Artist Is Present (2010), her work has demonstrated that profound change often emerges through sustained attention rather than spectacle. The Hero continues this trajectory. At a moment when contemporary culture remains captivated by figures of dominance and authority, Abramović offers another possibility: a hero defined not by conquest, but by consciousness.

Standing beneath a white flag, neither victorious nor defeated, the artist presents an image suspended between memory and possibility. It is not a monument to the past, but an invitation to imagine a different future.

Marina Abramović is one of the most influential artists of the contemporary era, widely recognised for redefining the possibilities of performance art. For more than five decades, her work has explored the limits of the body, the power of presence and the transformative potential of human connection, creating experiences that challenge audiences to confront themselves, one another and the world around them.

Emerging from Belgrade in the early 1970s, Abramović became a pioneer of performance art through works that tested endurance, vulnerability, trust and risk. From the groundbreaking Rhythm series and the Golden Lion-winning Balkan Baroque to the landmark performance The Artist Is Present at MoMA, her practice has consistently pushed beyond traditional definitions of art, transforming time, attention and presence into artistic materials. Throughout her career, she has explored how ritual, stillness and collective participation can generate heightened states of awareness, empathy and transformation.

Abramović’s relationship with CIRCA has extended these investigations into both public and digital space. In 2022, she collaborated with the platform on The Hero 25FPS, her first NFT project, reimagining one of the most celebrated works of her career for a new generation of audiences. This was followed by Unconditional Love (2023), a manifesto calling for compassion, forgiveness and human connection, first performed at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. In 2024, CIRCA partnered with Abramović and Glastonbury Festival to present Seven Minutes of Collective Silence. Performed live before tens of thousands of festivalgoers, the work achieved what many would have considered impossible: bringing silence to one of the loudest and most celebrated music festivals in the world. Extending far beyond Worthy Farm through CIRCA’s global network of screens and international media coverage, the project demonstrated Abramović’s enduring belief that collective attention, stillness and presence remain among the most powerful forces available to us.

Founder of the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), Abramović continues to shape generations of artists while expanding the possibilities of performance beyond the museum and gallery. Through a practice grounded in presence, participation and transformation, she has demonstrated how art can create profound encounters between individuals and the wider human community.