Marina Abramović

Marina Abramovic on her Meltdown performance

Performance artist is planning to give a women only talk on "female energy" at Antony Hegarty-curated festival

Interviewed in the Guardian, one of our favourite artists Marina Abramović reveals she'll be giving a talk purely for women as part of her upcoming Meltdown performance The Spirit In Any Condition Does Not Burn.

"When he (this year's festival curator Antony Hegarty) asked me I really had to think about it. I am very clear that I am not a feminist," Abramović says. "It puts you into a category and I don't like that. An artist has no gender. All that matters is whether they make good art or bad art. So I thought about it, but then I said yes. It's new and exciting for me to do this. Right now I'm on holiday and almost every day I'm thinking how I'm going to handle this talk, and every day it's changing. I'm interested in asking: what does feminine energy mean?"

Abramović also revealed what form her own Meltdown bill would take if she were asked to curate the South Bank festival. "I would focus on long-durational works of art. Everything would be more than six hours, so people actually have to create time in order to see the work. If I could not find contemporary pieces I would like to commission different artists because I think long-durational work is something we need, because life is so fast. I would also have some historical pieces made, like the work of John Cage, which would take several hours to be executed. But I would also think about young artists doing something with music, dance and performance." Read the full Guardian interview and check out our great Marina Abramović monograph in the shop.