Marina Abramović

Who She Is: Performance artist.

Why She’s an Awesome Weirdo: The Belgrade-born Abramović creates performance art that pushes the limits and boundaries of the mind and body. Most recently, she performed “The Artist Is Present,” a two-month long piece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in which viewers were invited to engage in sitting opposite Abramović in the atrium of the museum. In total, she spent 736 hours in static and silence for the piece. Everything she does is extreme: In 1988 she ended her relationship with longtime partner Ulay by staging a walk along the Great Wall of China. Ulay began at the Gobi Desert and Abramović at the Yellow Sea. They each traversed 2500 kilometers before meeting in the middle to say goodbye.