performance art | NYC, Marina Abramović "Generator" at Sean Kelly

The participatory performace was almost Zen experience awareness of prioprioception, blindfolded and with earmuffs covering sound in an anonymous, not familiar space. No recording device was allowed.

Upcoming | Marina Abramovic Institute in Hudson: Ephemeral Becomes Permanent

Yesterday in Hudson (NY) Marina Abramovic introduced plans for the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art (MAI). The presentation occurred in the same former Community Tennis Building, which will be hosting MAI: a pretending neoclassical run-down building1from 1929, with 20,000 square feet of space The Community Tennis Building is located in Columbia Street, one block from Warren Street, Hudson main street which has undergone a revitalization in the past two decades with the ubiquitous antique dealers shops and art galleries. There is no set opening date for  MAI but, from Marina Abramovic presentation the Institute sounds definitely innovative  and hopefully will include also projects by the many artists populated the Hudson Valley, which witnessed the birth one of the first American art movements, the Hudson River School of Painting. 

The renovated building will be filled with chambers to induce several participatory experiences in the visitors, well beyond the typical superficial browsing which is often the main experience of art galleries and museum goers. The visitors will have to sign a contract before entering MAI, stating that their visit will last at least six hours. Several level of engagements will be offered, in the attempt to blur the line between artist performers and viewing audience, which will wear a lab coat, as a participant to what the artist defines as the "Abramovic method." One chamber will be filled with magnets and crystals to awaken and channel individual energy. Another visitor experience will be in the "durational chair", designed by the artist; each chair will be manouvred by an attendant who will wheel tired visitors to sleeping area. 

Abramovic announced that before starting to implement her vision she has to raise $15 million need for the renovation. The building renovation and retrofitting is designed by the Dutch archistar Rem Koolhaas of OMA and, at least from the model on view at the presentation (no walkthrough or other digital interactive visualization was presented) does not look dynamic and intriguing as the vision of Abramovic. Very static rationalist interior elevations do not seem to take in account the time based experience which characterizes a fluid art form as performance.

At the end of the presentation there was a screening, quite beautiful, of one of her first performances in the building, a kind of initiation in the relationship between the artist and the space she chose to give permanence to the ephemerality of performance art.

Exhibitions NYC | MOMA, Marina Abramovic | Performance Art or Performance?

Art exhibitions in New York City museum often present the spectacularity of Broadway theaters. There is no clear boundary between the artwork presented in the installation and exhibition design, as mainly verified in installation and video art. This is particularly evident in the exhibition currently on view at the MOMA, "The Artist is Present" a survey of the work of the performance artist Marina Abramovic

The exhibition combines a remake of "historical" installations by Abramovic and her former partner Ulay, with documentation of the "real performances" including several memorabilia.

The main piece is the museum second floor perfomance, where Abramovic sits still at a table for the all duration of the exhibit; visitors are invited to sit across the table from her.

Definitely a very spectacular exhibition, including the over 10-foot multi-channel projection screens or hundreds pound of recreated plastic bones. The performers recreating the performance have a perfect theathrical make-up and sets. Spectacularity which was missing from the original performances.

But....what is the meaning/sence of re-making performance art? It sounds like an oxymoron: the ephemerality and time-based which characterizes this type of art expression are lost, so is the impact with audience and the intent itself.

Performance art is not theater.

Events NYC | Marina Abramovic Presentation at Miller Theathre

Marina Abramovic came to Miller Theater at Columbia University last week. Introduced by Carol Becker, Dean of the School of the Arts, she looked lovely, trim, and youthful, with a velvet band holding back her flowing dark hair.

She gave a preview of 5 installations to be shown in her upcoming MOMA show. She asserted there would be no pain for the exhibiting human subjects. But she showed how she had trained them in bodily and sensory control. Perhaps the new Institute for Durational Presence which she expects to open in Hudson NY will offer more opportunities for her work with others in “training for the responsibility of simply being human”, as she put it.

She presented an overview of her work from its beginnings. She believes that the worse childhood you have, the better artist you become; that you have your best ideas at age 13 and then continually recycle them.

Marina was born and came of age in Serbia, a land of continuing strife. Members of her family were leaders in Serbian institutions—the Serbian Orthodox church and the Serbian army. These institutions were/are in the forefront of that nation’s battles with its Balkan political neighbors, its non-Orthodox inhabitants, as well as enemies from afar. Surely this environment has played a role in her ability to endure discomfort, stress, hunger, gut wrenchers, even pain for her performances.

Marina constantly alluded to energy—in her work she takes energy from the audience. She believes that energy sustains the artist. Clearly she feels the transference of energy among humans, whatever their place in the tableaux she sets up. It’s charged and it’s in constant motion—a clear difference from energies given off by a static color in a painting or a shocking image.

While painting was a very early medium for her, sound emerged as a predominant feature early in her artistic development. She used sound, not as a static medium, but as a way to change the environment. For example, she put recordings of thousands of birds in a tree in a Yugoslav town which no longer had any, because of war.

She shared with us her Artist Manifesto. Some excerpts:

An artist should not lie
An artist should not compromise
An artist should not kill
An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist
An artist should develop an erotic point of view
An artist should be erotic
An artist should have self control
An artist should not have self control
An artist must have total self control
An artist should not be depressed (depression is not productive)

This artist is a sure-footed person with a remarkable intellect and intense creative energy. We look forward to her MOMA show and other work.