The Marina Abramović retrospective, the RA’s latest show, is revolutionary in its nature as the first dedicated to a female artist. Yet, unlike her renowned 2010 piece The Artist is Present, where Abramović stares back into eyes of the visitors of New York’s MoMa, the artist is, very noticeably, absent. Understandable, considering the endurance her works require amid her recent health issues. In fact, the show raises some important ideas as to how performance art can be displayed within the exhibition space.
The show takes on multiple methodologies to highlight the scope of Abramović’s work. Historic works that were revolutionary, boundary pushing performance pieces, become immortalized in archival material. Text, photographs and video reveal the intense nature of the artist’s early works. They are large in scale, imposing on the visitor a human body often pushed to its edge.
It’s probably for the best that the horrors of Rhythm 0 are not repeated by a performance artist. The audience were invited to use a variety of objects including a hat, olive oil, and a knife on the motionless artist, pushing the boundaries of the connection between artist and audience. Yet, displayed as archival material, these kind of works take on a new meaning. The original goal of the artist to lessen the space between her and the audience is abandoned. We stare at the images from a comfortable distance, still often in horror, but in nowhere near as much as if the work were being performed right in front of us.
Regardless, it is still exciting to see these works immortalized. It was particularly exciting to see archival footage of The Lovers in which her and her ex-partner Ulay walked towards each other from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China. It really allows the audience to empathize with the scale of the project and what it meant for their relationship (ultimately, its demise!).
Worry not, however, there is some performance art in this show, re-enacted by performers of the Marina Abramović Institute. The performers are trained with the Abramović method, pushes the body to its limits in order to connect it to their higher self. The method is heavily influenced by the artist’s time spent with Australian indigenous peoples and in Tibet which she developed into her practice. This is an important element in Abramović’s work which the exhibition emphasizes: the meditative-like state required for endurance-based pieces.
The most boundary-pushing by far is the re-enactment of Imponderabilia, which sees the audience forced to walk between two nude performers standing in a doorway. Though yes, the artist herself is not performing the works, I would still have loved to have seen more of this. It not only would allow the audience to experience multiple performances at the same time, but also emphasize the original reasoning behind the artist’s success- the shock of the presence of a body enduring.
A section of the exhibition that did feature audience involvement invited us to sit, lay or lean on large slabs of crystals, or what she calls ‘transitory objects’. These interactive works make the audience, instead of the performance artist, the protagonist of the work. Lying there, I personally fell into a bit of a meditative state, but, as I was perceived by others, I found it challenging to go deeper. Though it sought to place the audience in the performer’s shoes, the moment felt a bit gimmicky, and more of one for influencers to pose on. Though it could, of course, just be my anxiety talking. Regardless, a shift in focal point created more balance between the sections of the exhibition.
Though this exhibition is not as provocative as it could have been, it is still able to highlight both the diversity of Abramović’s career, and why she is such a pioneering artist. It included images of works, or re-enactments, that have had an everlasting impact on the art world. It also looks to a future beyond performance art for Abramović. The addition of performers from the Marina Abramović Institute ensure the continuation of her legacy. I predict that this is certainly not the last time that her works will be exhibited in this way in years to come. In fact, now that the artist is certainly no longer present, I expect that we will see more retrospective exhibitions from her in years to come.
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