Celebrated performance artist Marina Abramović sat down with the Smart to talk about her work and how the public helps to complete a performance piece.

"I think that performance in the deeper sense is about hospitality," Abramović says. "It's that you actually open yourself to the public and show your vulnerability, your contradictions, and be there in the full sense, for them."

Abramović will expand on these topics during a sold-out lecture on performance and its future tonight in the Loop. The lecture is presented by the Smart and the Chicago Humanities Festival. The Smart's exhibition Feast includes Communist Body / Fascist Body, an influential piece by Abramović and her longtime collaborator Ulay.