Marina Abromovic: The Artist Is Present

Marina Abromovic: The Artist Is Present
D: Matthew Akers
Playing at the IFS in Muenzinger Auditorium
THIS Sunday, November 4th at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Marina Abromovic must be among the most famous and successful living artists that most people have never heard of. How big is she? In 2010 she was given a retrospective surveying her 40 years of artistry, at MOMA--the ultimate validation for an artist. This was the first museum retrospective anywhere of performance art, Abromovic's metier. i was lucky enough to get to experience this amazing show, though i didn't stand in the line to sit in front of the artist herself. i don't have that kind of patience.
  Performance art arose in the 1960s, when other media began to challenged painting as the main mode of legitimate expression.
  This documentary explores the herstory of Abromovic's performing life: she began in the 1970s in Yugoslavia, had a significant partnership with an artist named Ulay from 1976 to 1988 when  they created "The Relationship Works", then she continued on solo, becoming the first performance artist to be represented by a gallery (Sean Kelly in NYC) where she has performed, to great acclaim, most of her pieces since the 90s. Clearly, she is a fearless, and deeply original artist. Even if you've never been exposed to, interested in, or felt you could relate to performance
art, her dedication and tremendous stamina will amaze you. She asserts that the artist must be a warrior; she must conquer herself, and conquer her weaknesses. Over and over she epitomizes these goals.
  When Abromovic first appears in the film, she muses that in the 10 years culminating in the MOMA show, she realized "there is only one question i haven't heard: why is this art??" The film interrogates this question deeply, and without judgement.
  Everything here leads up to the MOMA show for which she creates a radical new piece: The Artist is Present--and is she ever. For this creation, she challenges herself, and promises the curators, that she will be present in the great 2nd-floor rotunda, 7-1/2 hours a day, 6 days a week for 3 months. She will sit in stillness across from whomever of the museum patrons wishes to sit facing her, for however long that person wants to stay, and give them her undivided gaze, and receive theirs. This may sound strange and a bit too minimal (or boring) to be considered art, but as she explicates it: "performance becomes life itself--something that's near to nothing--with nothing to hide behind--no story--only the body." Day after day this concerted action completely alters the atmospheric charge of an incredibly busy museum and slows many people dramatically, both those participating and those observing. "Once you go through the door of pain, you enter into another space entirely. It is this altered state of mind that the public senses." If you don't at first think this would be painful, try sitting still on a solid wood chair for just an hour, and focusing on the same point in front of you. Then imagine what it would be like to do that for more than 400 hours, day in and day out, all the while being observed at close range by individual strangers and a surrounding crowd of onlookers. It was and is amazing to behold.
  Along with this performance, we also get a look into the 5 other floors of the museum, which were given over to video and photo documentation of her works. She trained 30 young artists to recreate 5 historical pieces from her career as well. All of them were nude, as she was when she originated the works. They were as fearless as their mentor, and it was unforgettable, i can attest. As she told them, "you must create your own present charismatic space." They did, but she represents the zenith of performance art, then and now.
  Abromovic has worked all her career to have performance art seen as real art. For me, she completely accomplished this in the show itself, and again in this film document. Do yourself a favor and take this opportunity to experience a radically different kind of art by a totally committed artist.

Last week i wrote about the latest film by the French director, Bruno Dumont, "Outside Satan." A friend sent me a link to an interview done with him by Karin Badt, which appeared on The Huffington Post. As i read through it, i was immediately taken by how much the philosophy of Dumont and Marina Abromovic converge. The director says he is searching for modern images that have sacred power; "...yes, my films are mystical, to make people feel the mystery, to inspire them to experience for themselves the miracle of existence. Hollywood films are alienating to the spectator because they use too much dialogue, too much explication and leave no space for the viewer." I am sure Marina Abromovic, who has created her art through the flow of energy through her body and mind, fearless silence and the power to attract and hold the attention of the audience, would agree with every word.


--Linda Stonerock