welcome to alex twenty one today with three remarkable women. the revolution through dunce change through movement the. sash of arts has redefined our concept of space and the human body she's one of germany's most versatile and best known choreographer and the. photographic especially when they're shut down in iran the artist is a woman of courage she supports opponents of the regime in her home country and sees a south as a freedom fighter deploying the weapons of arms against the suppression of muslim women. the pressure must pay as a life in exile. the undisputed queen of performance art marina abramovich one of the most radical artists of our time she uses her own body to convey her ideas and explore boundaries. of

trust remember and last page. today she's an icon. we met all three these exceptional artists each has overcome a number of obstacles along their way an encounter with three unstoppable women. spring in new york twenty ten in the museum of modern art marina abramovich ventures to do what no art has the for her has ever attempted a seven hundred fifty hour performance. for three months she sits on a wooden chair silently looking into the eyes of her visitors an existential experience. the artist is present is

the performance which makes marina abramovich a legend. or soon twenty sixteen we meet her in new york on his seventieth birthday. a woman who knows the effect she has a bit of a diva cool and very intense. mother. forgiveness. longing. and. loneliness. marina abramovic has turned her life into ruthlessness she has exposed herself to pain. discomfort. even danger

ever since the one nine hundred seventy s. . abramovich grew up after world war two in belgrade the capital of communist yugoslavia. had parents the partisans who had fought the nazis during the war. her father was a high ranking officer and mother historian it was a strict time where discipline was more important than love. the child that was you know painting my dreams and then i was writing poetry and then ever thought occurred to me and then i started painting and then from the painting somehow come this idea of making a performance i really was thinking to be in the studio in paint something which is two dimensional so actually restricted what about going out or what about using

fire the water using the elements using the own body using your own blood and your own emotions and creating art with that and this was really my beginning and of course with this inexorable slavia which will inevitably access to the other ideas similar in that time internationally i was like a black sheep in the middle of nowhere and and everybody was thinking i'm completely crazy this war is nothing this is not you can't call this art my professor. we parents criticize our party ratings and i just continue the only thing i have the time it was my intuition some hole somewhere i was right. if you. knew to. listen to. her art is more than skin deep literally she brushes her hair until his skull leads to criticize the fact that art should only ever feel beautiful. coast the pain

to herself in order to free myself from pain the pain is ok and this was exactly you're not you're free the pain confront the self with the tree of that's exactly what i have to be done and it's in my life to become something that i do with everything you know if i'm afraid of something or. panicking or i'm going to or nor i would do. in a city rainy and shirin neshat uses her work to come to terms with her home country . when the islamic revolution swept through iran in one nine hundred seventy nine sure initialed was living in the us. she didn't return to iran until a decade later it was the last visit. these photos are her response to the country's altered cultural landscape women who wear veils but exude self-confidence nonetheless i myself find extremely one as

a woman yet i make big work. syrian national it is soft spoken and reserved and then bishop when it comes to her work in turkey or in twenty seventeen her lifetime achievement was honored with the global arts prize premium imperioli then it is familiar territory she's won several major awards here during the being only in twenty seventeen she had an exhibition at the revered billard summers their career. the home of my eyes is a series of large portraits. nashat first a draft men and women of all ages in azerbaijan neighbor to iran and former member of the soviet republic each person has a similar pose. as abberation was a part of iran until the nineteenth century so when i went i was average and i felt like i was going home with me that never goes back to iran being you know as i have asian was very sort of moving for me and was damaging.

as a passion is a multiethnic nation between the caucasus mountains and the caspian sea. here muslims jews and christians lived peacefully side by side. the artist also asked her photos subjects about their notion of home and penned their answers on to their portraits in the home of my eyes sharing a shot most of the questions herself. have lost all flavor of what is the meaning of home by being nomadic or not homeless but the magic and it was a interesting because there the things that they pointed out to were that what was the essence of the meaning of home to them certain reasons that with never ever allowed them to leave as a by chance of me questioning them bad their in their relationships as

a concept of home was really my own self looking into the mirror and asking those questions to myself. shirin neshat enjoyed a middle class liberal upbringing and went to a catholic boarding school in tehran early on she knew she wanted to be an artist when she was seventeen she went to the us to study the western backed shah was still in power at the time. then in one nine hundred seventy nine he was overthrown and the islamic fundamentalist ayatollah khamenei took over young. shirin neshat could no longer go back to see her family. i think those years were the most traumatic years of my life this separation became really critical for me as a young person who was not quite at ease with the american culture and theirs that they wanted to go home but it wasn't possible because the airports were cause. and american relationship broke down and the war with iraq had become so serious that

my family just said please don't even think of coming back before you know it you find other people who are in the same situation and you bond together like i have with my husband my colleagues that i work with and we create our own community as survivors and we made arts and and then you end up creating pioneering your own life that is not magic. the film royer shows how little shirin neshat felt at home in the usa the country of exile. collaborating and occupying free spaces is also familiar. to join choreographer moved to berlin in the early ninety's ninety's shortly after reunification. transitioning says he was an outer rather of sorts for the arts fringe anything was

possible. it's found at the dances songbook was asked about guests and set off on a journey into the on. a list was total i didn't see anything one dimensional where you say one thing and everybody understands the same thing. that's pretty boring to me thank you. soon discover is this a fiend's i live in you and choreographs if those successful dance piece there i lead a cause or avenue of the cosmonauts. and offbeat provocative production part of a trilogy on the absurdities of domestic life. the company spent months researching in the communist era housing complexes of east berlin. russia votes travels the world with her company in twenty thirteen they received an

invitation to kolkata. in collaboration with indian choreographer padmini chatter and her ensemble of arts designed a performance in the courtyard and wings of an old private palace from the colonial era. but sons of the project in calcutta was very unusual it was set in an old palace and it led a different kind of storytelling emerged that way the rooms had been sealed off it was as if the life that had taken place there before had stood still and it was like a fairy tale where everybody had fallen asleep in time passes over them the pictures on the wall fade dust settles everywhere. travelling has always been a part of the way we see ourselves right from the beginning it defines our longing and our self image of such then. initially but it's danced along with her ensemble

she was seeking new forms of expression also with other performing arts dance alone has never been enough for her up i started taking dance lessons when i was five until the age of about twelve. it was only after. i discovered post modern dance and contact improvise ation with some dollars these techniques of consciousness and perception that i really developed an interest in studying dance. studio during a five year stint as an artistic director of bilin shall be in a theater it's created one of the most significant productions coppa. it's an exploration of anatomy that delves into every aspect of the human body both inside and out. time and again the company conjures images that see themselves into the view is memory like a nightmare. at the same time

isn't afraid of venturing into more abstract territory in fall when she takes dance back to its more ceremonial ritualistic our regions while her early works were wilder and closer to daily life her later choreography is feel more crafted or artificial for clear tour she transforms dances into animalistic creatures and explores social issues. of our gravity your mother was a gallery and your father an architect. so you may have inherited your talent for strong visuals from the one side but space has also always played a key role in your work what do you look for in a space what appeals to you. is my we actually rehearsed it building sites a lot of the jewish museum had only just been completed it was still empty and the collection hadn't been installed yet and usually we're performing at that special moment before the space assumes the function it was designed for. it's exciting

because that's the moment that breathes life into a space like that became really clear to me with our work for berlin's noise museum the space had this incredible energy. the choreographed exploration of unusual buildings is just one facet of her work. celebrated opera premiers have followed. many of the world's major press houses are now open to paris rome tokyo and berlin she oversees the entire stage production transforming even the unwieldy medium of opera to give it her own signature.

back to marina abramovich. a major retrospective of the exhibition the cleaner has been touring europe since twenty seventeen. marina abramovich larger than life a true icon. her art has changed many people's perceptions. penman was walk through walls were published in twenty sixteen. performance and more my last really the longest you ever did how did this idea. come into life i know i was very difficult i know that was the man the process but also all that it was my new trance to learn to show up to the public transformative force of performance and with absolute simply nothing.

other than this artist is present thinking that this chair will be empty before this new york nobody have time to sit there for several scrapes it was weird to sit . front of the trail was never never empty and people slept in the front of the museum. and i was thinking why this important performance gets you know attention i think because the public right now is so much ready for this kind of twenty years ago was not be ready there was will be something else going on to try now we're so tired of walking things were so tired. of god sort of knowledge of.

completely not ability to have emotions to to have relationships although. now so the public want to be part of something that back of their own experience which will give to them. the situation for women in iran is the ever present theme for shirin neshat she created her first feature film in two thousand and nine. the story of four completely different women wishing to escape their lives. that. he speaks.

but. a woman without men was based on a great novel and magic latest novel written by one of the most important iranian women writers who have lived in exile. and you know i've often written poetry and my work and my photographs by master poets that i want. i somehow look up to woman particularly women that compromise their way oppress the society yet quite empowered the rest my friends to hear some of the santa comes diminished and eventually yeah and if all goes what indexer young founded on economic invention front men i mean i don't. time it used to unite and then

evaluate just a few me then do me and mine if we didn't const i'm happy and i'm to the front so i . don't suppose i know that. he was the dog and not the dog she was in the states. if i did that's just me i was thinking. women without men is her most political film yes. q wasn't able to shoot in iran. the film won a silver line at the two thousand and nine bennis film festival. are you a feminist artiste this question has been as for me a lot and i was i asked my ideas do you think i'm a feminist they all said yes so gave using other feathers that no problem i'm extremely interested in. in women in the way that. their lives no matter which country what culture they come from and that it's always does the

reality of the symbol fragile and vulnerable and yet extremely strong and defying. the latest film is dedicated to the egyptian singer equal fool a tribute to the icon of the arab world. burden. sharing that should likes to take a gamble. the. german choreographer is that of votes is also driven to new challenges as of twenty nineteen she will become the first ever woman to co-direct billion starts. traditionalists of the dance scene have severely criticized her appointment. for them to think it's a great opportunity for dance to explore these extreme positions i want to preserve classical ballet on the one hand and create space on the other hand for

contemporary choreographers with a contemporary language to work with this diversity in these different possibilities of the body. in the us and should be able to create an ensemble that can work with these extremes extreme or. new challenges in twenty nineteen it's certainly not an easy course. from of it's has never really cared much about what others thought of her her public image is again she has the will to be different she'll be happy to glow in her own way. if you look at the funny performance fashion of the of the performance artists it was naked our glee bloke order to white this is it with any other thing to wear and lipstick and nail polish you know fashion was totally

disregard it's like a family to live something that is ridiculous that is like you know the just you know kind of completely. idea that artists don't want to be like a kind of a bond and miserable i want to feel. and this and this really works with the with the sun with you know just for just about fashion is about i do meditation winter retrieves i'm going to wear you away the places in india i have the all system of actually how i work with my body my work is plentiful thousand twenty five to space to breathe from the shows to wearing you know your performances and trying to do different projects collaboration works so all this mess and then comes this island of quietness which is the performance of self. in the more recent where the artist has been tackling more unsettling issues like

death. and you are you. you know that you know that you're going to the last part of your life and you have to really concentrate on most important things and i decided to be happy this is my main you know kind of say. the series about that in seventy well i. guess. i will say some more by buys some more things i think by by loose is getting longer which would be they also already say bye bye happiness by by suffering by by. intensity i actually will

bring back i don't want to say bye bye to intensity i'm intense you and i but i will say the bye bye bullshit. three artists three free spirits all made it to the top. i moved on and i don't want to always live it is a sense of longing in this romantic idea of return i feel that i have come to an end of that chapter and my stories make concepts my characters are altered changing what remains constant is myself. for me is useless for me the strength of dance lies in the fact that its language is so much fear that's what makes it so grand being able to touch that secret behind you i. have no luggage and tell me

if commutes bookings are closest i can go through this is true this is why it's so good in all three of them i didn't put myself in anything at all. as. far.

well it seemed as never before. later in the car to make it. more comfortable. than twenty nineteen summer functions. will be achieved rest for a season as high as it is colorful on. the road.

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well i guess sometimes i am but i said nothing with that haven't been thinking deep into the german culture. music scene. this grandma do you know it's all laughter. no i'm rachel join me for me to get something to host. the are coming grammy floating wait lists and i won't leave the craziest party on the earth or this case above earth hello and welcome to another exciting edition of euro max i'm your host meghan lee here's a look at what else we've got in store for you today.