Marina Abramović Is Launching a Series of NFT Drops This Summer

After unveiling a line of wellness products, designing a group of chairs, and bringing her meditation method to the WeTransfer platform

Marina Abramović is returning to the blockchain for her next venture, channeling her performance art practice into a series of NFT drops.

This summer will see the artist unveil Marina Abramović Element (MAE), a project spanning three NFT releases with interactive elements to engage collectors in various aspects of Abramović’s work. The outing follows her first Web3 foray in 2021—which saw her 2001 work The Hero offered as NFTs—but is far more involved. It follows a busy period that also saw her unveil a line of wellness products, design a group of chairs, and bring her meditation method to the WeTransfer platform.

Announced via press release on Tuesday, MAE is being created in partnership with digital art marketplace TAEX, and builds upon the narrative essence of Abramović’s art.

“We are thrilled to be embarking on this unique collaboration with Marina Abramović, a true visionary of our time,” said Inna Bazhenova, founder of TAEX. “Through her groundbreaking performance art and unwavering self-expression, Marina has left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. Together with TAEX’s expertise in the Web3 domain, we will be creating an immersive experience where participants from the worlds of art and Web3 become active co-creators of her legacy.”

The collection’s three themed drops trace Abramović’s creative evolution: Art, which delves into the symbols and archetypes that have featured in her practice; Life, which highlights how she incorporates locations, gestures, and outfits into her works; and Marina Abramović Method, which explores her journey to self-discovery via the founding of her own institute. The three segments will be released from May through September.

Within each of these drops are tokens with a range of formats and rarity levels, from still images (Ordinary) to looped animations (Rare) to looped animations that are adapted to real-life moon cycles for some reason (Epic).

The game aspect is layered throughout and takes the form of Transformational Crystals, which can be earned by playing the Maze and Counting Crystals games during the second and third drops respectively. These collectibles allow participants to mint limited-edition 5D MAE Performance and 5D MAE Avatar NFTs.

What’s the deal with 5D? It’s to do with the fifth dimension, which, per Abramović, one can enter only by renewing one’s physical being: “You will be able to carry your body to the fourth dimension, but not to the fifth dimension because your body is too heavy. You will have a crystal in your body in the fifth dimension.”

And there’s more. After its final drop, MAE wraps up in November with an event called The Great Mint. There, collectors will get to mint the project’s ultimate NFT, the MAE token.

But to participate, people must first have amassed quite the trove: either three Epic NFTs from each of the drops and a Transformation Crystal, or three Rare NFTs and a Transformation Crystal. These combos will pave the way to the MAE token, which takes the form of video artworks or animations featuring Abramović’s avatar performing new iterations of her iconic pieces. These versions, we’re promised, will see the artist’s avatar transcend “the boundaries of physicality, enabling impossible performances.”

This entire elaborate project is based on a fictional story Abramović penned, according to the press announcement, and likely emerges from her wish to marry the immateriality of performance art with that of digital art.

“Working today with technology and creating my own avatar is a way to develop a new relationship between the performer and the public,” she explained in a statement. “The public’s interaction provides the process through which immateriality can be transformed into energy.”

Not all of MAE is immaterial, though. Before its first drop, the project will stage an April 8 preview at London’s Moco Museum, where visitors can presumably glimpse the releases. The artist will also be present.