Unafraid to loosen the seams of mortality, Marina Abramovic has defied pain by cutting herself 20 times in a 1973 piece and immersed herself in an operatic reimagining of her life and death by Robert Wilson. In short, the performance artist refuses to have the eventuality of life become an obstacle in her now-canonical work, crystallized in the unseen clip from The New Yorker’s debut docu-series. An Amazon Prime original pilot, the show comes on the heels of the new channel’s historic win at the Golden Globes for trailblazing comedy Transparent, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman’s New York Philharmonic series Mozart in Jungle and a forthcoming landmark partnership with Woody Allen.

The New Yorker Presents, produced by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, finds the magazine’s Ariel Levy embarking on a tour of “Generator,” Abramovic’s recent exhibition at New York’s Sean Kelly gallery, quizzing her on whether you need a good sex life to be a good artist. But the incendiary topic of death couldn’t be more timely for the artist, who this summer will begin filming “Seven Deaths”, her portrayal of celebrated opera singer and personal heroine, Maria Callas. First conceived 25 years ago during the opera dramatist’s sudden death in the 1970s, Abramovic announced the project at Miami Art Basel. “She died of a broken heart,” said Ambramovic. “When I finish ‘Seven Deaths,’ I’m done with dying.”