Go into a park, find a tree you like, hold the tree and complain to the tree. This was Marina Abramović’s technique for staying focused during the pandemic. In 2020, she and a group of volunteers tried out this tree-hugging exercise during a five-hour programme on Sky Arts that sought to educate watchers on the history of performance art. Though at times it felt like watching a mockumentary, it was a transformative experience for the participants, according to Abramović. “It was amazing how people got emotional. How much they kept inside, and how talking to the tree [was] a kind of release.”

It’s 11am in New York, where Abramović is based, and she has just finished a morning yoga session. She stretches out her arms, showing me her black fitness top before turning the web camera round to reveal a snowy landscape. “I like to do physical exercise. Walk in the snow. I don’t want to have my life in control. I hate [the] studio. I never go to the studio,” says the 75-year-old artist. “I like to put myself in very uncommon situations.”

Internationally known for her performance art pieces that experiment with time, metaphysics and the human body, Abramović is teaching her fans the art of endurance, concentration, self-control and willpower through a new series of instructions intended to “reboot your life”. The Marina Abramović Method is a set of 30 cards, each featuring a different DIY task. Some instructions are overtly unconventional, such as “Walk backwards with a mirror”, which she advises you to do outdoors.