I went to Marina Abramovic's erotic, explicit new art show and there was an awful lot to take in | Adrian Chiles

"This is the morning after I was lucky enough to be at the world premiere of Marina Abramovic's Balkan Erotic Epic at Aviva Studios in Manchester. It is said of Ms Abramovic, formidable as ever at 78, that she is the grandmother of performance art. Addressing us beforehand, visibly nervous, she spoke of this work as perhaps her most ambitious, her magnum opus."

"The show that word feels inadequate isn't a play or a musical or a static exhibition. It's kind of all three. It begins at the funeral of President Tito of Yugoslavia. The audience falls in behind a slow-moving, dirge-playing band to be led into the huge performance space. For me, this was most affecting, as I was brought up well aware of Tito's cultural weight."

"The performance, or rather performances, are delivered simultaneously in 13 acts on as many stages. There is an awful lot to take in, even before you start trying to get your head around the erotic or, rather, explicit content. The first thing I clapped eyes on was a hairy bottom going up and down on a giant screen. Before this screen, on a representation of a grassy field,"

The piece was framed beforehand as perhaps the most ambitious, described as a magnum opus. It opens with a procession following President Tito's funeral that leads the audience into a vast performance space. Thirteen acts run simultaneously across multiple stages, combining theatrical, musical and exhibitionary elements. The programme references a return to Slavic roots and ancient rituals, linking sexuality to existential questions. The production stages explicit erotic imagery and bodily enactments, including a giant screen showing a hairy bottom and performers mimicking ritualized movement on a grassy field. The work creates a dense, affecting experience that mixes ceremony and provocation.

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