Marina Abramović
COUNT ON US

2005

EB66

Photogravure, 70 x 100 cm

Edition of 100, signed and numbered
Edition A: 55 copies (numbered 1/55 - 55/55, all in portfolios)
Edition B: 35 copies (numbered I/XXXV - XXXV/XXXV)
10 artists proofs (numbered AP 1/10 - AP 10/10)

3.400 Euro

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part of portfolio Love It or Leave It
Photogravure by the artist Marina Abramovic. Black-and-white photo of dozens of children dressed as soldiers lying down in sitting in formation to create a large five-pointed star shape on the ground, viewed from above. Marina Abramovic stands in the middle of the star with stretched out arms and legs wearing black clothes with a skeleton attached on the front.

    The photogravure COUNT ON US shows a large five-pointed star taken from a bird’s eye view, shaped from the bodies of black uniformed children and young people. They are all looking at the figure in the center of the star – where Marina Abramović herself stands with her arms and legs outstretched and a human skeleton attached to her clothing.
    COUNT ON US is Marina Abramović’s contribution to the edition Love It or Leave It (EB66), a portfolio with thirty graphic contributions that was created as part of the biennial of the same name (2004, Cetinje, Montenegro). The image is a video still taken from the 4-channel video installation Count on Us from 2004. Like the video work The Hero (2001) shown by the artist at the Biennale, COUNT ON US also deals with the history of the former Yugoslavian countries in a multi-layered way. According to Bojan Pejić, the five-pointed star formed from the uniformed bodies of children and young people refers to the choreographies that were organized and broadcast on television every year on 25 May on the Day of Youth (Tito’s birthday) during Tito’s time in office and have thus become anchored in the collective memory.1
    Printed 2005 by Fritze Margull, Berlin.
    Text: Katrin Seemann

    1 Cf. Bojan Pejić, „And now, let’s remember … Yugoslavia“, in: Marina Abramović. The Cleaner, Exhib. Cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2019, p. 252.