The multi-channel installation 'Balkan Erotic Epic' is based on Marina Abramovic's research into Balkan folk culture and its use of the erotic. According to her, it is through eroticism that the human tries to make himself equal with the gods: 'In folklore, the woman marrying the sun or the man marrying the moon is to preserve the secret of the creative energy and to get in touch through eroticism with indestructible cosmic forces. People believed that in the erotic there was something superhuman that doesn't come from him but from the gods. Obscene objects and male and female genitals have a very important function in the fertility and agricultural rites of Balkan peasants. They were used very explicitly for a variety of purposes. Women would show in the ritu…ls openly their vaginas, bottoms, breasts and menstrual blood. Men would show openly in the rituals their bottoms and penises in acts of masturbation and ejaculation.' 'Balkan Erotic Epic' belongs to series of works that reflect Abramovic's Serbian origins, also including the installations 'Balkan Baroque' and 'Count on Us' as well as the single-channel works 'The Hero' and 'Tesla Urn'. 'Balkan Erotic Epic' has a quite variable form, as its thirteen channels are seldom exhibited at the same time - most often a few are selected to be shown together. There also exists a single-channel version of the work. Read more...