With the first appointment of the outstanding performanceartist Marina Abramovic to the Pina Bausch Professorshipat the Folkwang University of the Arts, thefocus in the 2022-23 academic year was placed ontransdisciplinarity, artistic daring and social awareness.The project supervised by Abramovic, entitled "FreeInterdisciplinary Performance Lab (FIPL)," was realizedin a class of around twenty students from the fields ofmusic (classical and jazz, instrumental, vocal and composition),dance, design, photography, (physical) theaterand directing. The students developed individual or collectiveconcepts for performances and learned how tocreate a long-term performative work form in an experience-based process. Through a workshop entitled"Cleaning the House", they developed a sense of thepresence required in performances, including the explorationof their individual physical and mental boundaries,according to a method proposed by Abramovic.

Marina Abramovic has been setting international standards as a performance artist since the 1970s. Her own body is usually at the center of her often extended performances. She has taken part in documenta three times since 1977 and was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1997. Her performance "The Artist is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010) became famous. After teaching in Paris and Berlin, among other places, she took up the newly established Pina Bausch Professorship at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in the winter semester of 2022/23.