Tim Hailand Adds a Layer to Marina AbramoviÄ?’s Biography

“Art has always been essential to the DNA of CoSTUME NATIONAL,” says the brand’s creative director, Ennio Capasa. Amidst fashion month madness, CoSTUME NATIONAL and Capasa are taking a moment to host a preview of photographer Tim Hailand’s new book, One Day in the Life of Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina AbramoviÄ?. It is the fourth in Hailand’s “One Day in the Life” series—a project that features Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Daniel Radcliffe and Rufus Wainwright. “There’s an organic link between our work and concepts, [we] just [use] different artistic tools to express the same vision,” explains Capasa.

This book, however, is a departure. It’s not a direct study of performance artist Marina AbramoviÄ?; rather Hailand follows Marina as she works with Robert Wilson, Willem Dafoe and Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) to create her operatic biography, The Life and Death of Marina AbramoviÄ?. While AbramoviÄ? has staged her biography before, she has never completely relinquished control to another artist as she did with Wilson for this project. “It was a very liberating moment and very important, because having complete control makes the way you present your life the same every time,” says AbramoviÄ? of the experience. “But in handing over my story, it makes my life completely new.” Hailand’s book is thus “a portrait of a portrait;” it as much about Bob Wilson as it is AbramoviÄ?; “I focus on Bob’s beautifully realized moving portraits of Marina. The book is really about the process of creating this work, as well as about the work itself.”

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF ROBERT WILSON’S THE  LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC COMES OUT ON APRIL 11TH. TO PRE-ORDER THE BOOK, PLEASE VISIT THE ONE DAY IN THE LIFE WEBSITE.