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The Artist Is Present

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
For 600 hours, over 3 months, in 2010, Marina Abramovic invited gallery visitors to take turns sitting opposite her without speaking to her or making physical contact. Abramovic, considered by many to be the Goddess of performance art, uses her body and mind in her work as both her subject and her medium. She explores the physical and mental limits of her being. She has been working for over 40 years as a visual artist and in that time she has performed works in which she has experienced pain, exhaustion and danger as a means of achieving emotional and spiritual transformation. Her pieces are durational works and feats of endurance. They take place over a long time, sometimes months. Many people are ambivalent about performance art and would ask ‘Why’? ‘What is the point’? ‘Surely that is a little self-obsessed?’ But these are questions that are asked of all art by some, so why not give performance art a chance? After all it is starting to come in to its own after half a century on the sidelines, and is being programmed in mainstream galleries, such as Tate Modern, which has recently created The Tanks, a dedicated space for live art.
I’m no expert in performance art. My dread of audience participation, combined with the fact that it’s often difficult to work out what on earth is going on, whilst being aware that it seems faintly embarrassing or uncomfortable, are all big deterrents to me pitching up to an actual event. However since studying it and taking part in small events in the late 80’s as part of my Expressive arts degree in Brighton, I have maintained an interest, usually from a comfortable distance. Many people ask what is the difference between theatre and performance art is and Abramovic explains her understanding,
‘To be a performance artist, you have to hate theatre. Theatre is fake… The knife is not real, the blood is not real, and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the knife is real, the blood is real, and the emotions are real.’ (Guardian 3/10/10)
From the reference to blood, knives and emotion I am reminded that many performance works push at boundaries and make us feel uncomfortable, they are visceral and emotionally challenging in ways that we often don’t want to be challenged, especially in public places. They can include acts of intimacy exposed to crowds in galleries such as Vito Acconci’s “Seedbed 1971” which I saw on video (phew!) an exhibition in Istanbul last year that took ‘human relations and humanity’ as it’s focus. However if you can see beyond the apparent and sometimes intended absurdity, performance art can offer some of the most exciting and alive work that has been produced in the past 50 years and it can offer an enlightenment that many artists of all genres strive for in their work. Performance art at its best can do this in a pure, raw and direct form. Abramovic is a master of perfecting the use of a simple vehicle to communicate the myriad complexities of human nature and emotions and of the human condition.
Of her piece ‘The Artist is Present’ she says ‘The hardest thing is to do something which is close to nothing,’
This piece was inspired by her desire to create ‘a moment of presence………….I want to create a stillness in the middle of the tornado’. The tornado she is referring to in general seems to be New York, America and specifically MoMa itself which has between 11,000 and 15,000 visitors a day. “The Artist is Present is about the here and now ……..It’s just about the present moment.”
The idea of slowing things down, in response to an ever accelerating world seems to be a recurring theme in much contemporary art and to successfully create work about ‘the present moment’ in a fresh and innovative way is a big ask. It is inherently deeply connected to big themes such as spirituality and immediately references meditation and the meditative state. Abramovic did fairly rigorous physical and mental preparation to ready herself for the ordeal of sitting still for between 7 and 10 hours a day for 3 months. However as with all good art work, much of it’s brilliance could not have been predicted, it is only in the doing that the numerous intricacies unfold and that we can fully begin to understand the complexities unleashed. During the weeks that Abramovic sat, returning visitors’ gaze, many people cried, many felt humbled by the experience of having a person give them minutes of completely focused attention, some felt they didn’t deserve it as for many people this rarely happens.
Abramovic relates ‘Some of them, they’re really open and you feel incredible pain. So many people have so much pain. When they sit in front of me, it’s not about me any more – ….very soon, I am just a mirror of their own self’.
Which brings me back to the original clip, above, that had me and other OCA staff in tears, here the mirror is removed.
“Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again.
At her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, where she shared a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing and this is what happened”
Her work, according to her, is ‘real’, however people who have seen her perform always note how very in control she is, how she exudes an air of calm. In this clip, which is in effect, performance art becoming reality TV, the mirror is both removed and remains in place, we see ourselves in her, and we see a glimpse of the person behind the performer. And we recognise something both human and universal. Two people who have shared an intense time in the past but have had no contact for many years see each other again and it is deeply moving. Many people can identify with the story behind the meeting. I am not sure it was a fair thing for Ulay to do to Abramovic, but it is spell binding footage, and for an artist who has already staged her own funeral as part of Manchester International Festival and who sees her life as art, she seems seems fair game.
In this short clip we can see the nuances of the complexity of emotions condensed from 50 years of life into 90 seconds. We can identify with it, it moves us and communicates something deep to us. And as if to prove Abramovic’s point it focuses our understanding of what can be achieved by the simple act of looking at someone and by giving them the time of day.
References
http://www.askyfilledwithshootingstars.com/wordpress/?p=1197
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-vito-acconci
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2012/jul/04/marina-abramovic-the-artist-is-present-video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-marina-abramovic-performance-artist
http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/la-la-la-human-steps_61.html
Upcoming Events
Performing The Life and Death of Marina Abramovich June 13/14 in Toronto. (Previously performed at the Lowry, Manchester
Recent videos and documentaries
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marina-Abramovic-The-Artist-Present/dp/B007VNHPUM
Marina Abramovic: The Goddess of Art. BBC4 programme. Not available at the moment but worth keeping an eye out for.


Posted by author: Lisa OBrien

31 thoughts on “The Artist Is Present

  • Wow this is beautiful. I am not easily moved by performance art but Abramovic takes my breath away, and why I love the human portrait.
    Thaks for posting this.

    • Jereme – you are a performance artist yourself. You have also made work which combines performance and painting and performance and sculpture. You just need to acknowledge the performative aspect!

      • Thanks Emma 🙂
        The mixed media module is brilliant for opening up new avenues, I think I need to be cautious to not only concern myself with mastering paint on my current course.

  • Nice article, I have strangely seen quite a lot about “The Artist Is Present” recently, particularly links on social networking sites to the DVD trailer/video clip that you have posted so I wonder if this article was in response to this.
    I saw this trailer last summer when the movie was released and not knowing who Marina Abramovic was, read some articles and watched some clips on youtube. I then watched the movie on DVD.
    There seem to be many articles floating about on the internet that mislead people into believing that Abramovic and Ulay had no contact before this event, indeed that is the impression that the video clip and poor press articles give. The reality was that they met before the exhibition and spent some time together, all of which is shown in the film. In fact when Abramovic (who did appear apprehensive) opened the door to Ulay, it certainly wasn’t the emotional reunion that is implied. You wonder whether it was “fair” for Ulay to sit with Abramovic? I am assuming she was in on it, after all it was the first day of the event, Ulay was there doing the “press thing” and he was fast tracked to the front of the waiting line. Ulay’s body language when he sat down is interesting too, in an interview beforehand he seemed to me to be somewhat aloof and maybe bitter about the breakup, saying that they had both been unfaithful but at least he hadn’t slept with one of their friends. To me Ulay was saying “here I am, look into my eyes, have you anything to say to me?”. She reached for him. Maybe what she was saying was “sorry”.
    You mention that Abramovic “shared a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her”, that is not exactly true, there was no time limit (I believe one guy sat there all day much to the disgust of many others queuing), but on the final day they did impose some time restrictions. There were also many other “incidents” where sitters decided to use the event as a vehicle for self-promotion. One girl approached the chair and promptly removed her dress but was quickly ushered away protesting to the security guards, another guy apparently purposely vomited on the floor. By the end it had become a bit of a circus, somewhat different to the “stillness in the middle of the tornado” with people crossing the globe and camping outside to try and get the chance to sit with Abramovic.
    That being said, I whole heartedly recommend getting hold of a copy of “Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present” on DVD, as someone who knows very little about performance art I found it a fantastic documentary.

  • Hello Jim,
    thanks for your feedback and further important background info. I had tried to find out more about both before, and after the meeting, and hadn’t managed to find very much. I would definitely like to see the DVD The Artist Is Present. And should have watched it before writing the article I now see!
    It is interesting how a little background information can completely alter how you interpret a look or a gesture.
    The information about the ‘minute of silence ‘ with each person is in the quote I included from the zengarage website. I was aware it was wrong but felt the rest of the quote summed up the content of the video well so went with it, I should probably have pointed out that it was inaccurate just underneath the quote.
    The reality of how the actual performance piece played out, as described in your comments and regarding the New York tornado, is interesting too isn’t it. Maybe what she was attempting to do was impossible after all.
    You’ve inspired me to order the dvd now though. Thanks for clarifying points and dispelling the myth – I think! So performance art is just as fake as theatre after all Marina, but I still find it moving all the same.

  • Hi Lisa,
    I am glad that you took my feedback as I intended, not as a criticism of your article but more of my frustration at the propagation of misinformation on the internet. I know exactly what you mean when you say that it is hard to find decent sources of information about things, I know I have quoted websites and articles myself, thinking that whoever has produced the article has done the research, only to later find out that they hadn’t…
    I had similar issues with many press reports over the William Klein/Daido Moriyama exhibition at the Tate, where certain papers had printed scathing reviews of Moriyama’s work, I seriously doubt that some of them had even visited the exhibition, never mind actually bothering to look into the background of photographer whose work is rarely shown in the UK. These articles were then quoted in several blogs, which made me very sad.
    So once again, nice article, and I hope that everybody who reads it goes out and sees the film and searches YouTube as there are some good lectures/talks by Abramovic that give a good insight into her work.

  • It will be interesting to hear more about what is actually on the DVD. To call a performance “fake” because of what is claimed in a press release or on websites out of an artist’s control does seem unfair. It is not clear from the above if Marina did or did not know Ulay was going to show up to sit opposite her during the performance. Given what I have seen and read about other of her performances, I’d guess she would not be party to staging such an event. Perhaps more to the point, in this performance she would not have been able to control it in any case. To have forbidden someone from the queue would indeed have been “fake.” The distinction made between theatre and performance that is quoted does not say that performance is “natural” or “ordinary.” That incredible red dress could certainly be described as “theatrical,” but that does not make this performance into the same kind of event as a scripted play or even an improv theatre presentation, nor would it seem to make it “fake.”
    It is certainly important to realize how our expectations influence our responses to an artwork, but surely this is something much performance art is designed to make us think about more deeply: to explore more consciously how we, as viewers (in a certain time and place) are part of the art– true also when it is a painting encountered on a wall, or pictured and discussed on a website.

  • I find I am not particularly concerned about whether it is “fake” or not. The main thing for me was the “presence” of the artist. Her strength to receive and fully return the gaze of each and every person who sat in front of her. There is a transparency and vulnerability and generosity that I found very moving.

  • The back story does not affect my personal response to the performance in any way.
    Even if the meeting with Ulay was staged and even if there responses in the performance were staged I would consider it a great piece of ‘performance’

  • I might make some mistakes here as I’m just about’s to dash out but felt I wanted to respond. Your comments (everyone) raise lots of interesting questions for me. When I watched the clip I felt that particular bit with Ulay had a touch of reality TV about it more than theatre or performance art. Reality TV doesn’t have a great standing in the cultural stakes but this was a very touching moment. It echoed some of those programmes where people are reunited after many years apart, lost relatives is one of the themes I think, they trigger all the emotional buttons, is that good or bad? But does whether something is real or not impact on it’s value. Partly I suppose it depends how it is packaged, and here there’s a distinct possibility that on this particular website zengarage we are led to believe we are seeing something which in fact we are not. (Though I did suspect that at thetime but wanted to believe it was true – there’s another thing to ponder – why?) And what do we mean by saying something is fake? Theatre, film , fiction often speaks great truths while being classed as fiction. Is fiction the same as fake? There is a lot to think about here and I think it probably relates to the writings of Baudrillard, reality and hyper reality and Simulacra and Simluacrum – that’s the article he wrote I think, in the 1980’s. It’s very interesting. , but …it’s a bit early in the morning and I need to revisit it before going further!

  • And the point I forgot to make above, is that, in many ways this discussion highlights the dangers of watching Live Art on the internet, on TV, it’s not the way it was intended to be experienced. It is not reality. But , I think on balance, it’s probably better that we do get to see at least a version of the work we wouldn’t otherwise see and open up the opportunity for discussion and broaden our experience even if it isn’t ideal or purpose made for online media.
    Just the ‘idea’ of this work The Artist is Present’ is quite profound I think.

  • I certainly wouldn’t call it fake, and whether Abramovic knew that Ulay was going to sit or whether they even had discussed it was not shown in the documentary and personally I don’t care, I believe there was still a genuine emotional reaction between them and I think that is what is important here (what that reaction was we can only speculate). I think she said that is was open for anyone who wanted to sit could sit, so that would include Ulay and I assume the others who were ultimately prevented by security (with or without her intervention – she had a signal to security if she became concerned and the sitter would be removed). Ulay and other “celebs” were fast tracked to the front of the queue…was this fair? Did Abramovic encourage this? This obviously would increase the publicity but at the same time would this not change the whole nature of the work?
    I have no problem with Abramovic, Ulay, “The Artist is Present”, the event itself or the film. It is fascinating for me and I’m sure I’ll watch it time and time again. My issue is with the media and the “creative editing” and misinformation that has created such strong emotional reactions in people (myself included) that had us believing something that wasn’t exactly true. Abramovic’s work is often created to solicit a strong response so maybe this can be seen as an unexpected extension of this…here we are all talking about it three years later.
    PS If you want to see some of Ulay’s polaroids they are currently part of Tate Liverpool’s “Glam” exhibition.

  • I didn’t know anything about Abramovic and found this article and comments fascinating. it certainly showed me a difference between performance and theatre in this particular case. I was thinking as well; isn’t this what’s involved in genuine therapy in the right circumstances – to sit before someone who gives you their full attention?
    Regarding the meeting with Abramovic and Ulay – they might well have met beforehand but to have someone suddenly appear in front of your eyes is different. To me it looked as if they were truly ‘meeting’ each other in the midst of the performance. I noticed as well that Abramovic moved her hands away first and it was as if Ulay still wanted to reach out to her.

    • Yes, I think that reference to therapy is very pertinent. I think Gillian Wearing also uses group therapy type situations in her videos/performance work and it’s very thought provoking. Sometimes I’m not sure why it’s art rather than just a recording of a group therapy session but I know, the fact that she’s an artist and it is exhibited in a gallery etc. defines it as art to a large extent. Bully in particular is like a film of a therapy session, I can’t find a link to it now though. Here are examples of some of her other work
      http://selfmade.org.uk (takes a while to load)
      and 2 into 1, which is very powerful, and also seems to reference strongly Clio Barnards film The Arbor in it’s style which is probably classed as documentary
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WUgFMDY-M
      Though GW’s take on this definitely pushes it one step further.
      I’ll watch again Catherine to see the hand moving you mention. Thanks.

      • and meant to say, I saw the Gillian Wearing work ‘live’ at the Whitechapel last year. It was a very intense show! A lot of very emotional work to see. oi – I say I saw it live, what I saw was videos on large screens, which is how the artist intended it to be seen I assume. So it is obviously very different from performance art in that way. But closely linked in others as it is time based, uses human interaction as it’s core and very close observation of that interaction as the meaning it is trying to communicate.

  • I was fortunate to see Marina Abramovitch for real at an exhibition in Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, many years back. She recreated some old performance pieces and created some new. Some were also shown on video. They did not have the same impact, of course- performance art has to be witnessed for real. On entering the gallery, the public had to go through a narrow door on one side of which was Marina naked and on the other Ulay also naked. The door was sufficiently narrow that you had to turn to one side to ease yourself in, trying not to touch their bodies. There was quite a queue, but you couldn’t see what was happening until you approached and you had to very quickly decide which way to face. This was interesting in itself as you had to sum up all sorts of things in a split second- your own inhibitions, curiosities, preduces etc. Once inside, we witnessed many other performances and saw a film of the Great Wall of China walk. There were also art objects. I particularly remember a pair of huge amethyst geode slippers that you were invited to put your feet into. The stride was large and it gave me a great sense of power, as if I were a giant striding the earth’s surface.

    • This is interesting to me Olivia as so much of the photographic documentation of the early performance art involving nudity and challenging personal space and physical boundaries that was done in the 70s shows very young women (not unexpectedly). Carolee Schneeman was in Edinburgh this summer (she of meat joy fame) and it is so interesting to me to think of these older women reenacting their performance with their new body shapes. I agree with Lisa that the documentation, whether as documentation or as a new art piece, is something completely different to being at a performance and needs to assessed differently.

      • I’m not sure how old she was when I saw her. The piece was originally made in 1977 and I saw it in the nineties, I think. I remember thinking she was very beautiful, but not in the typical, media obsessed way.

    • Hi Olivia,
      I saw that performance (just on video) – the walking between two people – (Imponderabilia it’s called from what I can make out, 1977) , what a very simple but effective performance. I would love to have seen something of her’s live. It sounds like she has a very commanding presence from what other people who have seen her say. SHe can imbue simple actions with levity.

    • Wow, Olivia. I’ve seen many pictures of that performance in the narrow door, and thought it a brilliant “artwork” bringing up all sorts of aspects of cultural conditioning, but I never before even thought about the decision on which way to face and how implicating that would be. Thanks.

  • Did no-one else mind the music on the video ? It drew attention to itself on its introduction, and I spent the rest of the video wondering at the deliberate attempt to manipulate my feelings; what it would be like without it and whose decision it was to add it – It felt like I was being hit on the head with a signpost.

    • Hi Phil, thanks for mentioning that. Yes , I did notice it, and it is very manipulative. I have watched it without as well, but it is what it is and I feel the music does it’s job of enhancing the emotive content , which as I now realise it was also filmed as a part of a documentary rather than a straight record of the performance piece, put’s in a different context. In that context , of documentary, I think it adds to the moment.

      • Yes, the music and the fast cutting between the faces of Marina and Ulay mean that watching this video must surely be a significantly different experience than actually being present at the event. It may possibly be a better experience, and could conceivably make the video a better work of art than the actual performance – perhaps ! But surely the video has sufficient extra for it and performance to be considered different works of art – even if the origin of the video was a TV documentary
        What was interesting to me (and slightly worrying) was the number of comments above that failed to distinguish the performance and the video, and made me wonder just *how* the sentiments that were expressed had been brought out from those commentators.

  • I saw the performance in MoMA and enjoyed the video so much more. In the cavernous gallery, surrounded by a crowd of waiting participants I just couldn’t make a connection as Marina was well out of arm’s reach. In the video I got a much better sense of the delicacies of the meetings. Looking at it from a photography POV I found out that a photographer had been photographing the participants and it was interesting to see the same people popping up repeatedly, making their own performance pieces. http://www.villagevoice.com/slideshow/staring-at-marina-abramovic-29992548/#1 Moving to yesterday the same curator surprised MoMA visitors with a piece by Tilda Swinton. This piece takes Marina’s request to be gazed at to new levels, as Tilda does not even feel the need to return or even acknowledge the gaze. http://gothamist.com/2013/03/23/tilda_swintons_moma_performance_art.php

    • Thanks for this different view Tanya which certainly brings out the performance aspects much more strongly. It almost gets to seem like the ‘staring’ contest that my young grand-daughter likes.
      I’m not surprised somehow at the Tilda Swinton version.

    • Great to see those photos Tanya. Thanks for that link. I remember hearing about Tilda Swintons piece at the Serpentine now you mention it. I wonder if she actually get’s any sleep. Will have a look more into the thinking by the piece, thanks.

    • Are you referring to Tilda Swinton lying in the glass case? I saw that years ago. It was certainly a strange feeling staring at her knowing she wouldn’t look back. Even though she was clearly up for it- otherwise why lie there- I couldn’t help feeling I was doing wrong. Guilt of some sort!

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