The Artist is Present

Marina Abramovic (no relation to Roman) is a performance artist, originally from Yugoslavia, now based in New York. At the Museum of Modern Art she's coming to the end of her exhibition, The Artist is Present. There are two parts to it.

Upstairs there's a retrospective of her earlier work, either filmed or recreated by volunteers. Much of it involves people holding positions while staring at each other, or staring off into space. Many are naked, like the poor lady who was stuck there lying beneath a skeleton as though engaged in missionary-position coitus: not perhaps how she saw her career developing when she first took up with the art crowd. The most talked-about piece, "Imponderabilia", a recreation of a 1977 performance by Abramovic and her then partner, has a naked man and a naked woman face across either side of a narrow doorway, staring into each other's eyes, while visitors are invited to make their way through by squeezing between them. As they're only about 18 inches apart at the most, this involves physical contact and some effort on your part (yes, I did it). Unsurprisingly, there have been gropings and other unseemly departures from the required attitude of decorous and reverent artistic appreciation. Well, if they insist on hands-on art, then perhaps they shouldn't be surprised if they get hands-on.

Downstairs, in the main atrium, in a floodlit square arena, is the main event. Here the artist is indeed present, staring at a succession of visitors who elect to seat themselves across from her and....stare back:

She sits there all day, staring, as challengers come and challengers go. She doesn't take a break during the course of the day, from MOMA opening time to MOMA closing time - 10:30 to 17:30, 20:00 on Fridays. It's an exercise in self-discipline and suffering which the old saints would have understood - but, nowadays, the religion is art.

Marco Anelli takes photographs of all the participants in this ritual. Here, I'm pretty sure, is the woman I photographed above (photography by anyone else is strictly forbidden round the arena). The whole collection on Flickr is here. Some last only a minute or so; some do better - which must be intensely annoying for those lined up waiting for their turn. Some hold a smile; some are defiant; some are intense: some weep. Some come back again and again and again. Some are even famous. But none can break the hard determined power of - the artist.

You can watch the performance live, when it's on.

It's been done before, of course, and reinforces the idea that performance art is comedy without the laughs. From The Big Train...

Comments

[DaninVan]

For $5 one can pop into a beer parlour, enjoy a pint and be engaged by a piece of performance art; non-stop peelers taking simulated showers, engaging in simulated sex or any number of highly creative endeavors. Far better value I think...;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art#Definition_of_the_term

[Mick H]

Well, I wouldn't know about that kind of thing.

[DaninVan]

...me neither.