Performance Artist Marina Abramović Says Jay Z ‘Used’ Her for Picasso Baby

Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović has slammed a collaboration she did with Jay Z two years ago, saying the rapper “used” her.

For his music video Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film, Jay Z rapped the song for six hours at New York’s Pace Gallery in front of celebrities and fans.

The video was inspired by Abramović’s 2010 performance The Artist is Present, where she sat immobile and silent on a chair for 736 hours at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

But in a recent interview with art magazine Spike, Abramović said she is “pissed” with how the collaboration turned out because apparently Jay Z didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.

“He adapted my work under one condition: That he would help my institute, which he didn’t,” she said.

The 68-year-old Belgrade native explained that when she did a similar collaboration with Lady Gaga, it worked well. “Just by having 45 million followers, she brought all these young kids into my public,” she said.

Abramović, who appeared in the video, said she was “completely used” by the rapper.

“In the end it was only a one-way transaction. I will never do it again.”

[Spike]