“THE BUS is a mobile capsule where people can experience stillness and a connection with the present moment and themselves. It’s an invitation for an inner journey that becomes collective. This is how we begin to find common ground and create space for dialogue and peace.” Marina Abramović, ArtistMarina Abramović Since emerging in Belgrade in the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has been a pioneer of performance as a visual art form. Early landmark works include Rhythm 0 (1974), in which she offered herself as an object of experimentation to the audience, or Rhythm 5 (1974), where she lay within the burning frame of a wooden star until losing consciousness. With these performances she pushed the limits of both her and her audience and set the foundation for her lifelong engagement with time, energy, pain and long-durational practice. In 2012, she founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a non-profit platform dedicated to performance art, long-durational work, and the Abramović Method, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration. Abramović has been widely embraced by major institutions across Europe, the US and beyond. Highlights include The Artist Is Present (MoMA, New York, 2010); her first European retrospective The Cleaner (2017-2019); her groundbreaking 2023 solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich; and her first solo exhibition in China, Transforming Energy (MoMA Shanghai, 2024). Accolades include the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (1997), numerous national and international honours (Austria, France, Serbia, Spain), TIME 100 recognition (2014) and major institutional awards such as the Sonning Prize (2023-2024). She has received honorary distinctions from universities and academies in Europe and in 2025 was awarded the Premium Imperiale for Sculpture. Marina Abramovic is a 2026 Cultural Leader Mirjam Varadinis Mirjam Varadinis is Director/ Founder of Mirjam Varadinis Art Agency and Curator-at-Large at the Kunsthaus Zurich. She has an extensive curatorial career, with many of her projects addressing expanding formats of contemporary curating, often working beyond the border of the institution. Varadinis is a regular contributor to artists’ publications, catalogues and art magazines and has curated a number of large-scale international contemporary exhibitions. Group exhibitions include the itinerant biennial Manifesta 12 in Palermo (2018), a special project for the 5th Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art (2013) and an annual festival of contemporary arts in Toulouse, using the city as material. Prominent contemporary artists featured in her curatorial projects for Kunsthaus Zurich include Marina Abramović, Yoko Ono, Olafur Eliasson, Kader Attia, Pipilotti Rist, Cindy Sherman, Rosa Barba and Urs Fischer. Making its world premiere at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, THE BUS will serve as a sanctuary of pause amid the intensity of global dialogue, an invitation to restore stillness and rediscover connection. Its debut marks the start of a global journey – each stop a moment of reconnection; each encounter a reminder that slowing down is not retreat but renewal. THE BUS is presented as part of the World Economic Forum’s 2026 Arts and Culture Programme and is a collaboration between Marina Abramović, the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), Cart Department and Mirjam Varadinis Art Agency (MVAA), and with the support of Monsol Foundation. To move forward as a society, we must bring together different disciplines and break down the silos that separate them. True innovation happens when people from different fields communicate and collaborate. This spirit of connection is increasingly visible in culture and technology, perhaps most strikingly in video games. Once considered a niche pastime, gaming now engages more than one-third of the global population, approximately 3 billion people worldwide. What began as a subculture has become one of the defining cultural forces of our time. Play is a fundamental human drive and a vital source of culture. Today, video games embody that insight, creating new spaces for creativity, community and shared experience.At the Serpentine Gallery, this understanding of play and participation has been central to our work. Twelve years ago we established a dedicated technology department to explore emerging innovations such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and virtual environments. This commitment led us to commission video games and other interactive works as part of our artistic programme. One of our current exhibitions, by artist Danielle Brathwaite- Shirley, uses a multiplayer game engine to immerse visitors in themes of polarization, censorship and social connection. The experience places the audience at the centre, inviting them to pause, reflect and reconnect with one another. The Culture of Togetherness Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London Image: Peter Doig: House of Music, Serpentine South, 10 October 2025 – 8 February 2026. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Arts and Culture Programme Annual Meeting 202617 Arts and Culture Programme Annual Meeting 2026 16

AM26 Arts and Culture Brochure