London's Serpentine Gallery has united with The Vinyl Factory to offer limited-edition audio keepsakes from two of its current exhibitions. The special vinyls, launched to coincide with 'Marina Abramović: 512 Hours' and 'Ed Atkins', not only solve the poster dearth created by performance and digital art shows, but push the notion of the souvenir far further, enabling visitors to take home the audio essence of each artist's sensory installations.
The vinyls are limited to 100 copies and are presented in a signed and numbered sleeve designed by each artist, making them collector's items. Abramović's edition features a recording of the Montenegrin American artist performing 'An Artist's Life Manifesto' recorded at the Serpentine Gallery in the days leading up to '512 Hours', which sees the artist perform within the gallery from 10am to 6pm, six days a week for the exhibition's duration. Track two captures the sounds of the void gallery space at 5pm on 6 June 2014.
Sample 'An Artist's Life Manifesto'
This is the first major performance by Abramović since her daily, three-month-long piece titled 'The Artist is Present' at the MoMA in 2010, in which visitors were invited to gaze into her eyes in complete silence for an unspecified amount of time.
Moving from real life to the cellular world, artist Ed Atkins works primarily with high definition video and text to subvert the conventions of moving pictures and literature.
In the case of his latest summer installation at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, the British creative's two 12" vinyls play three audio tracks from his multi-screen, digital avatar installation 'Ribbons' (2014), as well as a specially produced live reading by the artist of his text, 'Hammering the bars'.
Sample 'Ribbons'
Limited to 100 copies and presented in a signed and numbered sleeve designed by each artist, the partnership allows collector's to revisit the audio essence of each artist's sensory exhibition
In the case of Atkins' latest installation at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, the British artist's first 12" vinyl plays three audio tracks from Atkins' multi-screen digital avatar installation 'Ribbons' (2014)
The second features a specially produced live reading by the artist of his text 'Hammering the bars'
Abramović's vinyl edition includes a recording of the Montenegrin American artist performing 'An Artist's Life Manifesto', recorded at the Serpentine Gallery in the days leading up to '512 Hours'
Track two captures the empty gallery space at 5pm on 6 June 2014
-
This collection of slow furniture is a powerful ode to timeA serene exhibition of David Dolcini's 'Time-made' collection has fast-tracked its place into our hearts and homes
-
Is the Pragma P1 the most sustainable watch yet?Geneva-based brand Pragma combines industrial design with real sustainable credentials
-
Unlike the gloriously grotesque imagery in his films, Yorgos Lanthimos’ photographs are quietly beautifulAn exhibition at Webber Gallery in Los Angeles presents Yorgos Lanthimos’ photography
-
Switzerland’s best art exhibitions to see in 2025Art fans, here’s your bucket list of the standout exhibitions to see in Switzerland in 2025, exploring compelling themes and diverse media
-
Looking at people looking at art: inside the mind of a gallery attendantVisitor experience workers at London’s Tate Modern, Serpentine, Barbican and V&A share what it’s like to watch people looking at art during a time of changing attention spans and rising vandalism
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine SouthGerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
-
Marina Abramović at the Royal Academy: trauma to transcendenceMarina Abramović at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is a solo show spanning five decades of practice. Amah-Rose Abrams reports
-
Tomás Saraceno’s spider-led show at Serpentine has legs, and lots of them‘Web(s) of Life’, the first major UK show by Tomás Saraceno, is a living, collaborative and multi-species call to climate action involving everything from dog-friendly sculptures to ‘spider diviners’ – but no phones allowed
-
Marina Abramović revisits her Energy Clothes in a piercing Vienna showMarina Abramović considers the role of the body in ‘Energy Clothes’, debuting a new photo series and installation at Vienna’s Galerie Krinzinger, open until 29 July 2023
-
Steve McQueen to screen his harrowing film 'Grenfell' at London’s SerpentineAcclaimed film director and artist Steve McQueen will screen his film, Grenfell, at London’s Serpentine South gallery (7 April-10 May 2023), six years after the Grenfell Tower block blaze killed 72
-
Barbara Chase-Riboud at Serpentine: alternative monuments, parallel histories‘Infinite Folds’ at Serpentine North Gallery celebrates Barbara Chase-Riboud, the American artist, novelist and poet who has spent more than seven decades pondering history, memory, and the public monument
