![]() ![]() I think this was in the sixties at the time. Strenuous hours and hours and days to come here to Barcelona. When I was in my twenties, fresh from art academy, we made this trip with the bus from Belgrade. I have to tell you this really nice story. There’s always something to be afraid of. Looking back at all that you've done, with all the shows where you've literally put your life on the line… Here you're directing an opera… It makes me wonder: What are you afraid of now beyond this? I never do anything that I like – it’s too easy. Mostly I take ideas that I'm afraid of, difficult ideas, and I have to really do that and go with those ideas. And then, go to solitude and go into isolation and then ideas come out from nowhere. That nature and energy is such a kind of vitality. The source for music, running rivers and mountains and water and hugging the trees. ![]() People always ask me which artists inspired me and I have to disappoint them because I need to go to source. But who do you look up to? Who do you find inspiring? So many people look up to you and what you've done in terms of your performances. This is why this opera has the right audience at the right time and in the right place. And the Spanish public understands my work. I’m Balkan - we write drama and we are passionate about life and we enjoy life. Also because Spain is so passionate, and I am so passionate about everything. The Asturias award really reflected that, and I was incredibly happy to get it. So all of this, you have to find a way to give optimism, give oxygen to society and to lift spirits. I’ve come from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and we have more than a million people homeless on the street, in the richest part of the planet. Not just the war in Ukraine, but also global warming and where we are emotionally. We need this, especially in time we live now, which is such a difficult time. And this is what I really aim to do, because it's so easy to put the human spirit down. I reach a large audience and I really bring emotions to them and that's really the core of it - you are there to lift the human spirit. For me, that award was an incredible surprise and an incredible honour to receive. Do you think there is something that particularly resonates about your work in this country? You were recently in Spain to receive the prestigious Princess of Asturias award. You have to find a way to give optimism, give oxygen to society and to lift spirits. Do you see it as something to be celebrated or condemned? So much is being said these nowadays about how artificial intelligence could affect art. I'm actually showing different subjects in my work and they're not done in any way chronologically but mixing different periods. And it's a very, very big moment in my career. So there will be so many events during that period in London. And I'm also presenting the artists in my institute, the young artist presenting their work. It's going to be in London, and I will play my opera there too, in the National Opera. This is the first time I'm doing such a thing. And also for that occasion, I'm organising a very special Tea Party only for women who are successful in politics, in science, technology, writers, filmmakers, artists, and we're just going to really have time together. 255 years and there’s never been a woman in the space of the Royal Academy. It’s a big deal.Īnother landmark for you coming up this year is your show - you're going to be the first woman to have a display at Britain's Royal Academy. So this is an enormous trust and respect, and I'm really looking forward to it. I’ve done about six thousand but not ten. ![]() But I have to say that next year I am invited to a very important conference in Lithuania, and I supposed to address the crowd in a basketball stadium of 10,000 women. So it's a kind of contradiction for me, you know? I am a woman, but I make art which doesn't have a gender. I'm not a feminist artist because I don't believe that art has an agenda. ![]() But at the same time, I always have to say to the public that it’s all fine. But anyway, I think it's important today to celebrate. ![]()
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