Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage has played host to some of the loudest rock bands in the world and mass sing-alongs with thousands of participants, but on Friday the artist Marina Abramović will step out and ask the crowd to do something different: remain silent for seven minutes.
“I am terrified,” said Abramović, whose performance pieces have made her one of the most famous artists in the world. “I don’t know any visual artists who have done something like this in front of 175,000 to 200,000 people. The largest audience I ever had was 6,000 people in a stadium and I was thinking ‘wow’, but this is really beyond anything I’ve done.”
Abramović, who is calling the event a “public intervention” rather than a performance, will address the crowd from the Pyramid stage at 17:55, just before PJ Harvey’s set, and then ask the crowd to be quiet as part of a piece she’s calling Seven Minutes of Collective Silence.
The Serbian artist recognises asking thousands of festival goers, some who have been on site for two days already, to keep stumm might be difficult, but she’s hopeful that people will take the moment to reflect on the current state of the world.
“We are really facing a dark moment in human history. So what can be done? I always think protest brings more protest; hate brings more hate. I think it’s important to turn to your own self. It’s easy to criticise everything else but what can I do in my own self, how can I change?”
The event is being put on with Circa, the art organisation that took over Piccadilly Circus’s billboards displaying work by Frank Bowling and Ai Weiwei, and Abramović accepts it is a risky move at a rowdy music festival.
“It’s a big risk, that’s why I’m terrified. I could completely fail, or people could just sit. I don’t know, but I want to take the risk. Failing is also important, you learn from failing as well as succeeding,” she said.
“I want to see how I can go beyond the acid, beyond the mushrooms, beyond whatever is there and touch that moment in their soul and just for seven minutes stop everything. Can you imagine if we succeed? It will be an incredible moment.”
Abramovic’s appearance will be one of the standout moments in the festival and she’ll come out on stage in a garment designed by Riccardo Tisci, the Italian former creative head of Burberry. The artist doesn’t want to reveal the details of what she’ll be wearing but said it would be a “surprise” and would be in keeping with the festival’s theme of “peace”.
She said the moment will be one of the most challenging of her career. “How can I keep the energy of silence? I’m not a singer, I’m there for another purpose, which is to figure out how we can create silence and reflect what is happening in the world right now and to have that kind of presence in the Pyramid stage.”
The artist will visit Stonehenge at 6am to stand in the middle of the circle in order to “get all the energy [she] can” before making her way to Glastonbury.
Abramović – who became the first female artist in the Royal Academy’s 255-year history to have a solo show in the main galleries last year – has never been to Glastonbury before, and intends to explore Worthy Farm once her onstage performance has finished.
She’s not that interested in the headliners, saying she’d like to make her way around the smaller stages on the hunt for new music. “For me I’ll be like a child with open eyes,” she said. “Looking at these amazing new groups that I don’t know anything about.”
Before Abramović goes on stage there will be another art moment when BISHI performs Yoko Ono’s Voice Piece for Soprano, which includes three “massive, cathartic screams” that the audience can join in with, on the Park Stage at 12:25pm.
“We are honoured to have Marina Abramović bring such a meaningful and profound experience to Glastonbury,” said Emily Eavis, co-organiser of the Glastonbury festival. “Her work has always pushed boundaries and inspired deep reflection, and we believe this moment of collective silence will be a memorable and impactful addition to the festival.”