March 9, 2013
-
Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, 2010
The performance consisted of the artist being
present in a wooden chair, in MoMA's atrium, in a
long-sleeved gown with a pooling train, for seven
hours a day, six days a week, from the opening
on March 15th, until the closing on May 31st.
Throughout the performance she was perfectly
silent and virtually immobile (her features only
registered vicissitudes of emotion, and on the
first night, when Ulay took a brief turn in the
facing chair, she stretched out to reach him.)
Thereafter, members of the public were
invited to sit opposite her - at first, on the
other side of a table, and then, when the
table was removed, with nothing but space
between them. Many of the sitters seem
to be having a transcendent experience.
Their eyes grow bright; tears well and fall;
they bow their heads or touch their hearts
- and Abramovic occasionally touches hers.
The Sundance video on this is so moving.
You can see everything in their eyes.
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