Marina Abramovic

On a trip to Japan a few years ago, I found skull maracas in some small, remote shop on the south of the island. Instantly I fell in love with them, and I bought every single one in the store—53 of them. For a long time they just lay in storage. I had no idea what to do with them until Jason came to take my photo. I decided to use just two of them, holding them so their empty eye sockets were level with my eyes. Recently, I attended two funerals. One for someone in my family and the other for a friend. I was so annoyed about the way the relatives organized the events that I decided to make a complete concept of my own funeral and rehearse it before it happens. I thought about three bodies, one real and two fake, to be placed in three parts of the world, without revealing which one is which.

Somehow the portrait with the two skull maracas started to take on a whole new meaning.