Marina Abramovic groundbreaking work as a performance artist has been marked by death. When the 76-year-old artist was told she had a lung embolism three months ago, he was closer than ever to dying.
Abramovic has faced her worst fears, such as pain, death, being alone, and being made fun of, for 55 years. In September, the Royal Academy will host a show that many people are looking forward to. For her shows, she set herself on fire, worked as a prostitute in Amsterdam, and walked alone along the Great Wall of China.
Abramovic began her talk by talking about her health problems. She said that she had three operations and ten blood donations. She said that her skills in theater helped her stay alive. “I used everything I knew and had done” in her hard tasks, she said.
How performance art lives on as a test of history
Marina Abramovic can’t do her own job because of a health problem, which makes the show hard. The show ends on January 1, so it’s a test of how her performance art will live on after she’s gone. Abramovic was one of the first people to do performance art and helped make it famous. She wants to leave a mark on her art.
Her long shows, in which she pushed herself and her audience to find meaning, are shown in many different ways in the show. Abramovic said, “We are so afraid of pain,” bringing attention to the fact that people suffer. I hate being uncomfortable, but I know it’s important for living. Suffering helps us learn about ourselves.
Marina Abramovic performances from the past and new ones
The show shows old videos, photos, and installations of her most famous acts. Artists who were taught “the Marina Abramovic method” at her school in New York City re-perform a number of her works.
One of the most disturbing static works of art is a big table with 72 pieces that show pain and pleasure. It’s about a performance Abramovic did in Naples in 1974, when she stood still for six hours and let the audience use her things “as desired.” The funny situation turned scary when her clothes were pulled off and a loaded handgun was put to her neck. The gallery of performance stills is scary.
Different stages of remembering the source
Readers have different reactions to different works from the past. Her piece for the 1997 Venice Biennale, for which she won the Golden Lion, needed her to scrub bloody cow bones for days, and no one has ever been able to make it again. Marina Abramovic first act was more about ethnic war and how impossible it is to end it than it was about well-arranged bones in a cool room.
Other shrines to Maria Callas, like limestone blocks that say “The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas,” seem more like business items than real tributes. A rose quartz gateway for 2022 and other crystal energy tests from the new age are safe curiosities or show filler.
There are major holes and strong evidence of Marina Abramovic
The digital version of Marina Abramovic, VR Marina, who stared blankly at people wearing headsets at the Serpentine in 2019 is gone. Instead, “The Artist is Present,” the act she gave at MoMA in 2010 that was filmed, is shown. Videos made by ordinary people and famous people like Kim Cattrall and Antony Gormley are shown next to videos made by Abramovic. The paperwork makes the original work more moving because it shows how people feel and act.
Marina Abramovic Possible Live Performances Again
The best chance for the show is to have live re-performances, even though this could dilute the original works. This risk could be caused by bad casting or rules about health and safety.
“Imponderabilia,” which Abramovic and Ulay worked on for 12 years, has been re-done at the request of Ulay’s family. Some revivals stay true to the original, but they also leave room for creativity. Abramovic emphasized how important it is to read on your own. “I don’t want my work copied,” she said. You have to cite your sources, but it’s up to you to decide what they mean. You need a creative background, persistence, charm, and new ideas of your own.
Freedom and interactions that make you think
Abramovic says that these re-performances free the players by letting the audience see how sad they are. The shows are meant to make people feel something. “I reflect you,” said Abramovicc. I’m proof that if you work hard and try, you can do anything.
One of the exhibition’s rooms was turned into a three-room house for a new performance of “The House With the Ocean View.” Abramovicc’s act from 2002 is being shown on tape at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. She did a show and stayed in the building for 12 days without eating, talking, or drinking anything but water.
Abramovic likes this piece because it changed the way she thinks. She also said that long-term results have an effect on everything. Being honest puts you out there. To connect with people, you have to be open to being hurt.
A new stage with unknown futures
While she heals from an illness that almost killed her, Marina Abramovic may or may not be able to act again. If she goes back to art, she wants a public patio instead of a stuffy museum. This is different from her previous dark work. When she thinks about this change, she says, “I’m actually worried, because I’m happy.” So how can I have fun at work? I’ve never done this before. Most of what I write has a sad tone. The good times will come.
Abramovic’s trip through life, art, and death gives the artist and the viewers new situations and points of view. People can join Abramovic’s study of the human situation through performance art at this Royal Academy reunion.