Performance artist Marina Abramovic challenges Venice audience to be part of the artwork

Marina Abramovic, the pioneering performance artist whose silent 2010 work "The Artist Is Present" held more than 1,500 visitors in a wordless gaze at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, is returning to Venice with an exhibition that challenges audiences to slow down and become part of the artwork itself.

The Serbian-born, New York-based artist, who turns 80 this year, this week became the first living woman to be honored with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, where she won the top prize at the 1997 Biennale Arte.'

The show, "Transforming Energy," runs until October and invites visitors to interact with "transitory objects," including crystal structures and minerals that Abramovic describes as activating "energy transmissions." It also features re-enactments of some of her best-known performances, alongside a presentation of "Pieta," originally staged with her longtime partner Ulay and shown beside Titian’s masterpiece of the same name.

"The public wants to be part of the experience, wants to participate in a much more active way. This was, you know, the only reason why the chair in front of me was never empty," Abramovic said, adding the exhibition seeks to counter shrinking attention spans in the smartphone era through immersive, participatory experiences.

-Alex Fraser, Oriana Boselli/Reuters