THE MOST PAINFUL TYPE OF ART
This week I'd like to talk a little bit about the grandmother of the performance art - Marina Abramovic.
What is the performance?
It's an act in front of the audience, autor is both the creator and the matter of art. The element of the performance can be any object, concept or even the artist's body.
What is the performance?
It's an act in front of the audience, autor is both the creator and the matter of art. The element of the performance can be any object, concept or even the artist's body.
For decades, she lived dirt poor and beyond the art world. As long as Marina lived with her parents, that is until she was 29, she had to go to bed before 22. When she was late, my mother would beat her. Even at night she had to be a good girl. Her mother peeked into her room and reprimanded her if she dug up too much in bedding while she was asleep. After this drift, she was accustomed to sleep 'at attention'. Her hotel beds always look as if she did not use them.
In 1974, Marina Abramović did a terrifying experiment. At a gallery in her native Belgrade, Serbia, she laid out 72 items on a trestle table and invited the public to use them on her in any way they saw fit. Some of the items were benign; a feather boa, some olive oil, roses. Others were not. "I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die." At the end of six hours, she walked away, dripping with blood and tears, but alive. "How lucky I am," she says in her still heavy accent, and laughs.
Then in 2010, Abramović sat in a chair in the gallery for eight hours a day, while visitors streamed in and, one by one, occupied the chair opposite her. Some wept; others laughed. At least one took off all her clothes and had to be removed by security. For three months, Abramovic sat there, impassive, during which time The Artist is Present drew record crowds to the gallery and became one of the most famous and controversial pieces of performance art ever staged.
She was in love only once, withUwe Laysiepen, a German artist who performed under the name Ulay. When she and Ulay broke up, it was in grand style: they walked towards each other from two sides of the Great Wall of China – 2,500km each, over the course of several months – meeting in the middle "to say goodbye". They've met again, 20 years later when he came at the MoMA performance in 2010.
In 1974, Marina Abramović did a terrifying experiment. At a gallery in her native Belgrade, Serbia, she laid out 72 items on a trestle table and invited the public to use them on her in any way they saw fit. Some of the items were benign; a feather boa, some olive oil, roses. Others were not. "I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die." At the end of six hours, she walked away, dripping with blood and tears, but alive. "How lucky I am," she says in her still heavy accent, and laughs.
She was in love only once, withUwe Laysiepen, a German artist who performed under the name Ulay. When she and Ulay broke up, it was in grand style: they walked towards each other from two sides of the Great Wall of China – 2,500km each, over the course of several months – meeting in the middle "to say goodbye". They've met again, 20 years later when he came at the MoMA performance in 2010.
I think that name "Marina Abramovic" rings a bell to almost everybody, even those who are not attracted by the art of performance at all. I've also heard about her before and I've seen the videos from the MoMA performance.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Krzysztof Zalewski made a videoclip for his song inspired by Marina's performance, starring Natalia Przybysz? That's a really fine song and clip, too :)