Performance by Marina Abramovich. Collection of performances by Marina Abramovich

The legal battle between Serbian artist Marina Abramovic and her former lover Ulay (real name Frank Uwe Laisiepen) began in November last year. Then the German artist, with whom Abramovich was in creative and romantic relationships, accused her of violating the contract concluded between them in 1999. During their partnership, Ulay and Marina created more than a dozen performances. As the publication wrote The Art Newspaper Russia, Ulay subsequently sold Abramovich his material archive. She, in turn, agreed to store and maintain the archive and control the production of photos, videos and other commercial materials based on it. According to the terms of the agreement, 50% of the profits from the sale of works went to the gallery, 30% to Abramovich, and 20% to Ulay. However, according to the artist, his former partner did not provide him with accurate sales information, and over the past 16 years she has paid him only four times. In addition, Abramovich asked to point out their joint work just her name.

Performance “Relationships in Time”

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“She’s not just my former business partner,” Ulay said. — All these works went down in history. They are now in school textbooks. But she deliberately distorts the information and crosses out my name.” As a result, the Amsterdam District Court ordered Marina Abramovic to pay her ex-partner €250 thousand in royalties for proceeds from the sale of their works, as well as €23 thousand for legal costs.

Magazine The New Yorker wrote that the work of Marina Abramovic is divided into three periods: before, during and after Ulay. The story of their relationship began in November 1975, when a certain Amsterdam gallery owner asked Ulay to meet the artist at the airport and help her with logistics for filming her performance "Thomas Lips". At that time, Abramovich, a native of Belgrade, had already loudly made herself known with her performances "Rhythm 10", "Rhythm 0", "Rhythm 2" And "Rhythm 4", during which she explored the limits of physical and mental endurance and the limits of connection between artist and audience. For example, "Rhythm 0" was that she allowed people who came to the exhibition to manipulate their bodies and movements with the help of 72 different objects, and during "Rhythm 4" holding her head above the powerful stream of air from the blower. These experiments, to which were added studies of male and female energy, continued in the joint work of Abramović and Ulay. The artists’ manifesto sounded as follows: “The absence permanent place residence, permanent movement, direct contact, independent choice, overcoming boundaries, ability to take risks, moving energy, no rehearsals, unpredictable end.”

Performance “Rhythm 10”

Performance “Rhythm 0”

Performance "Rhythm 2"

Performance "Rhythm 5"

The joint actions of Ulay and Abramovich were provocative due to their sometimes risky experiments and intense public involvement. In 1976 creative duet pointed to Venice Biennale performance "Relationships in space": two naked people ran towards each other and collided, and these movements were constantly repeated. Thus, Marina Abramovich and Ulay wanted to combine the masculine and feminine energy and create something third, which they called “That Entity.” Another striking performance was "Imponderabilia", shown in 1977 at the Gallery of Modern Art in Bologna. The nude artists stood facing each other in the doorway, and spectators wishing to enter the exhibition had to squeeze between them and inevitably turn to face either Ulay or Marina. One of the duo’s most risky art campaigns was "Energy of rest", demonstrated in 1980 in Dublin. Along with "Rhythm 0" Abramovich called this performance the most difficult. According to her, it was dedicated to complete mutual trust. The artists stood opposite each other, Marina held a combat bow, and Ulay held a bowstring with an arrow aimed at the heart of his partner. Both had microphones attached to their bodies, broadcasting the sounds of an accelerating heartbeat. If she lost her balance, the arrow could hit the artist directly. “It lasted four minutes and ten seconds, and for me it felt like an eternity,” Abramovic recalled.

Performances “Imponderabilia” and “Energy of Rest”

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Some joint performances influenced her further work. For example, series "Night Passage", when Ulay and Marina sat motionless opposite each other for several hours, inspired Abramovich for her famous action in 2010 "In the presence of the artist" V Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Then Marina sat at the table for about 740 hours, and anyone could sit opposite her and look into her eyes. The creative duo even turned their separation into a performance, perhaps the most famous to the general public.

Now Marina Abramovic is the most famous performance artist in the world, and her name is heard even by those who are not particularly interested in art. The general public knew Ulay precisely as her partner, despite the fact that he personal exhibitions were held in Amsterdam, Berlin, Athens and Ljubljana, and in May of this year he staged a three-day performance Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth in NYC. However, the joint period of their work was most vividly remembered by the public. And when, many years after parting, Ulay came to Modern Art Museum for a performance "In the presence of the artist" and sat down opposite Abramovich, and then the former partners took each other’s hands, the spectators standing in line applauded. And this, perhaps, was one of the most obvious evidence of the strong influence their art had on people.

Raised in a communist Yugoslav family, Marina Abramović became not only one of the most important performance artists of the 20th century, but also perhaps the most influential female artist in the world.

Performance is a type of contemporary art in which the work itself is considered to be an artistic act or process.

Suffering as the basis of art

Marina Abramovich's whole life is inseparably connected with artistic world. She is sure that without suffering and trials encountered on a person’s path, it is impossible to create real works of art. That is why the theme of pain and overcoming it runs through the red thread that connects her performances. And the object, as a rule, is neither more nor less own body female artists. She exposes herself to suffering, exploring the capabilities of the physical body and the limits of the human mind.

In her most famous performance, “Rhythm 0,” Abramovich gave the audience complete freedom, her passive body and a set of random objects, allowing them to dispose of all this as they wish. Among the things she suggested were roses, a pistol, feathers, honey, and scissors. During the performance, the initially hesitant audience began to behave more aggressively, as a result of which the artist’s clothes were torn, her skin was cut, and a gun was pointed at her. This performance was a kind of culmination in a series of previous artistic acts by Abramovic with the names “Rhythm 10”, “Rhythm 9”, “Rhythm 8”, etc., during which she lost consciousness, mutilated herself, suffocated from lack of oxygen, experiencing yourself in an effort to find the limits of your capabilities.

Test of trust

Abramovich did not limit herself to physical suffering. In 1976 in Amsterdam she met Uwe Leissiepen, German artist, performing under the pseudonym Ulay. In a duet with him, performances were invented and implemented that revealed the essence of a person’s moral qualities. During the performance “Energy of Peace”, Marina and Ulay, leaning away from each other, pulled towards themselves: she - the bow, holding on to its middle, and he - the bowstring, holding on to the end of the arrow aimed at Abramovic’s heart. Subsequently, Marina called this performance one of the most difficult in her career, since it was completely built on trust between her and Ulay. The artists carried out experiments not only on themselves, but also on the public, arranging psychological tests for the audience. For example, naked Abramovich and Ulay stood in the doorway leading to the museum for several hours. Visitors had to squeeze between them to get inside, and the passage was so narrow that a person could only enter sideways, turning to face Ulay or Abramovich.

Back to the roots

After living in Australia and Tibet, Abramovich became interested in the topic national identity. In 1997, she received a prize at the Venice Biennale for her performance “Balkan Baroque”. For several days she, dressed in White dress, cleaned the meat and washed with a brush 1500 beef bones, sitting right on a mountain of them. During the performance, the artist sang Balkan folk songs and told stories. In this way, she wanted to draw attention to the conflict that was taking place at that time in the Balkans. But Abramovich is quite rarely sharply political. Turning to the topic of the body, in 2007 she released a video collection “Balkan Erotic Epic”, telling about Balkan folk beliefs and traditions that involve human genitals.

"I never wanted to have male body. It seems to me that women are stronger anyway. A woman’s very ability to give life makes her a superman, and the rest doesn’t matter.”

Artist without gender

In his works, Abramovich almost never touches on the topic of sex and gender identity, however, she always gives preference to the feminine principle. "I am a woman. I am an artist. But I'm not a feminist artist. Artists have no gender,” she asserts when it comes to feminine motifs in her art. “I never wanted to have a man's body. It seems to me that women are stronger anyway. A woman’s very ability to give life makes her a superman, and the rest doesn’t matter.” In one of her last performances, “In the Presence of the Artist,” she sat at the table for several hours straight and looked into the eyes of the people sitting opposite her. But when I sat down opposite her ex-lover Ulay, with whom she parted rather painfully, she could not stand it and burst into tears. Ambramovich wrote a manifesto urging her to “Never fall in love with artists.” Still, a person, no matter how self-possessed and persistent he may be, always has a limit to his mental capabilities.

The idea behind the experiment was simple and elegant: for six hours, allow people to gain complete control over another person's body. The performance took place in exhibition center in Naples.

Marina Abramovic stood in front of a long table on which 72 various subjects. Some could bring pleasure, others could cause pain and even kill. Before the artist lay feathers, matches, a knife, nails, chains, a spoon, wine, honey, sugar, soap, a piece of cake, salt, a box of blades, a metal pipe, a scalpel, alcohol and much more.

Marina Abramovich placed a sign in front of her with instructions:

“Instructions.

There are 72 objects on the table that you can use however you want.

Performance

I am an object.

During this time I take full responsibility.

Duration: 6 hours (20:00 - 2:00)."

At first, the spectators were careful and gentle: they kissed her, gave her flowers, but, without receiving any resistance or objections, they gradually went further and further. Art critic Thomas McEvily, who was present at the performance, wrote: “It all started innocently. Someone turned her, another pulled her hand, someone touched her more intimately. The passions of the Neapolitan night began to heat up. By the third hour, all her clothes were cut by the blades, and by the fourth hour the blades had reached her skin. Someone cut her throat and drank her blood. Other things of a sexual nature were also done to her. She was so involved in the process that she wouldn't mind if the audience wanted to rape or kill her. Faced with her lack of will, there were people who came to her defense. When one of the men put a loaded pistol to Marina’s head, putting her own finger on the trigger, a fight broke out between the spectators.”

“At first the audience really wanted to play with me,” Abramovich recalls. “Then they became more and more aggressive, it was six hours of real horror. They cut off my hair, stuck rose thorns into my body, cut the skin on my neck, and then stuck a plaster on the wound. After six hours of performance, with tears in my eyes, naked, I walked towards the audience, which is why they literally ran out of the room, because they realized that I had “come to life” - I had ceased to be their toy and began to control my body. I remember that when I arrived at the hotel that evening and looked at myself in the mirror, I discovered a strand of gray hair.”

“One thing I wanted to show is that it is simply amazing how quickly a person can return to a wild cave state if he is allowed to. My experience suggests that if you leave the decision to the public, you can get killed,” says the artist.

Marina Abramovic Studies

Academy of Arts ( )
Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade [d] ( )

Biography

Abramovich was born in Belgrade in Serbia. Her great-uncle was Patriarch Barnabas of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Her parents were Yugoslav partisans during World War II. Marina Voyo's father was a commander who was hailed as a national hero after the war. Her mother Danica was a major in the army and in the 1960s director of the Museum of Revolution and Art in Belgrade.

At age 14, she asked her father to buy her oil paints. One of her father's friends decided to show her how to use them: he laid the canvas on the floor, splashed a mixture of paints on it and blew it up. From this example, Marina realized that in art “the process is more important than the result.”

In 1964, her father left the family. In a 1998 interview, Abramovich described how her “mother took complete military-style control over me and my brother. I wasn't allowed to leave the house after 10 pm until I was 29.<…>I performed all the performances in Yugoslavia before 10 pm, because at that time I had to be at home. It was absolute madness, but all my cutting, whipping, setting fires that could have taken my life - everything was done before 10 pm.”

She was a student at the University of Arts in Belgrade from 1965 to 1970. In 1972 she completed her studies at the Academy fine arts in Zagreb in Croatia. From 1973 to 1975 she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad, giving her first solo performances.

From 1971 to 1976, Marina was married to Neš Paripović.

In 2016, information appeared on the website of the publishing house Penguin Random House that on October 25, 2016, the artist would release her autobiography “Walk Through Walls”.

Performances and installations

Marina Abramović's installations sometimes shocked viewers: in 1988, one viewer fainted at her exhibition.

"Rhythm 0"

To test the limits of connection between performer and audience, Abramović created one of her most complex and famous performances in 1974. She assigned herself a passive role; the public had to act.

Abramović placed 72 objects on the table that people could use as they pleased. Some of these objects could provide pleasure, while others could cause pain. Among them were scissors, a knife, a whip and even a pistol with one cartridge. The artist allowed the public to manipulate her body and movements for six hours.

At first, the audience behaved modestly and cautiously, but after some time, during which the artist remained passive, the participants became more aggressive. Abramovich later recalled:

My experience is that if you leave the decision to the public, you can get killed.<…>I felt real violence: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one took a gun and aimed at my head, but the other took the weapon. An atmosphere of aggression reigned. Six hours later, as planned, I got up and walked towards the audience. Everyone rushed away, fleeing the real confrontation.

Working with Ulay

The main concepts they explored were the artist's personality and individuality. Gradually, Abramovich and Ulay decided to create a collective being called “the other” and talk about themselves as parts of a two-headed body. They dressed and acted like twins and had no secrets from each other.

At one of the first joint performances in 1977, called “Relationships in Time,” Marina and Ulay braided their hair and sat with their backs to each other in a similar position for 17 hours. For the first 16 hours they were only under the gaze of gallery staff. For every hour there was only a 3 minute break during which filming was done. Only at the 17th hour of the performance, when Marina and Ulay were on the verge of complete exhaustion, was the public invited. The idea was to focus on the fact that, fueled by the energy of the public, a person increases the level of his capabilities, in in this case After sitting in this position for another hour.

For the performance “Death of Self,” the artists connected their mouths with a special device and inhaled each other’s exhalations until the oxygen ran out. Seventeen minutes after the start of the performance, both fell to the floor unconscious with lungs filled with carbon dioxide. This performance explored the ability of an individual to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.

In the installation “Relationships in Space” (1976), the completely undressed artist and Ulay portrayed open relationship, tormenting each other in front of the audience.

The composition “Communist Body, Capitalist Body” (1980s) became a protest against the division of people by ideological barriers.

During the performance "Quiet Energy / Residual Energy" performed by Marina and Ulay in 1980, Abramović holds a bow while Ulay holds an arrow aimed at her heart and a drawn string. Throughout the 4-minute performance, microphones installed on Marina and Ulay and attached to their hearts tracked their heartbeats and transmitted this sound to the headphones they were wearing. The idea of the performance is to show the boundless trust that exists between partners.

In 1988, after several years of strained relations, Abramovich and Ulay decided to take a spiritual journey that would end their relationship. They set out from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China and met in the middle. According to Abramovich, “This campaign turned into a complete personal drama. Ulay started from the Gobi Desert, I started from the Yellow Sea. After each of us had traveled 2,500 kilometers, we met and said goodbye forever.”

"In the presence of the artist"

Marina Abramović's first retrospective exhibition took place in 2010 at the New York Museum of Modern Art. During this exhibition, Marina Abramovich made a new performance - “In the presence of the artist” (The Artist is Present). The idea of the performance was that Marina could, through an attentive gaze, establish contact with any willing visitor to the exhibition. This moment was recorded by a photographer. The performance lasted 736 hours and 30 minutes, the artist looked into the eyes of 1,500 spectators. On the first day of the performance, she met with Ulay. The artist could not contain her feelings and burst into tears.

Abramovich in Russia

In October 2011, the “largest retrospective” of Marina Abramovic entitled “In the Presence of the Artist,” curated by the director of the MoMA PS1 center, opened at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow. (English) Russian and senior curator special projects Museum of Modern Art New York Klaus Biesenbach. As part of this exhibition, about 50 works by Marina Abramovic, created on for four decades. Four works were shown in a “re-performance” format by performers specially selected and trained by the artist. Marina Abramovich herself held a five-day master class at Garage from October 2 to October 6, during which she taught future participants in her re-performances her original methodology.

Movies

Quotes

I have a theory: the worse your childhood, the better your art - if you are truly happy, then you will not be able to create good work. My parents were careerists, striving to achieve success in politics. They were both recognized after the Second World War national heroes. They had no desire to take care of the child, and they gave me to my grandmother. One day, I was waiting for my grandmother while she was praying in church. There I saw a font - a container into which you had to dip your fingers before crossing yourself. I thought that if I drank all the water, I would become a saint. I was six years old. I stood on a chair and drank this water. I just felt bad. I didn't turn into a saint. In general, I spent my entire childhood in the kitchen. The kitchen was the center of my universe. There I told my grandmother my dreams, and she told me different stories. There we initiated each other into all the secrets. It was a place of meeting and interpenetration of the everyday and the spiritual.

Many people don’t like performance art because they have seen a lot of bad performances. To tell the truth, a person generally doesn’t get many good performances in life.

Notes

German National Library, Berlin State Library, Bavarian State Library, etc. Record #11908273X // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012-2016.
Internet Movie Database - 1990.
Marina Abramovic
Demaria, Cristina (August 2004). “The Performative Body of Marina Abramovic.” European Journal of Women's Studies. 11 (3): 295.
Judith Thurman, Profiles, "Walking Through Walls," The New Yorker, March 8, 2010, p. 24.
Marina Abramović (undefined) . Lacan.com. Retrieved December 11, 2013.

Marina Abramovic famous Yugoslav performer. Her works have always caused heated debate and found themselves at the center of scandals. In 1997, the artist received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for an installation in which she washed a mountain of bloody bones in memory of the victims of the Yugoslav War.

Abramovich for a long time remained a so-called alternative artist, whose radicalism did not even fit into the understanding of modern art. One of her latest works is dedicated to the documentary film “Marina Abramovic: in the presence of the artist.” The filming was taken during the preparation and holding of the artist’s exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

And this time Abramovich did not do without a unique provocation

When dealing with documentary films, the line between cinematic art and its “ real basis"becomes almost invisible. Without actual events there would be no film, and vice versa. You never know where to start discussing modern documentary films? An exception, perhaps, may be the film by American director Matthew Akers “Marina Abramovic: In the Presence of the Artist.” Here you definitely feel that, before talking about the intricacies of the screen text, you definitely need to “put in a word” about its hero.

After for long years, carried out in constant protest to the “frozen” art of the classical form, Marina Abramovic rightfully calls herself the grandmother of performance. Everything she does is aimed at disturbing the viewer and provoking him to his own thoughts. Allow the public to do whatever they want with themselves, laying out 70 in front of them various items from rose to pistol. Walk halfway across the entire Chinese Wall towards your loved one and then part with him.

Abramovich’s art madness always called on the viewer not to isolate himself within the narrow socio-political framework of communism or capitalism, but to look inside himself. Man, in his nude (in literally) individuality that is who is at the center of all the interests of the Yugoslav performer. Therefore, a completely expected and logical emphasis of Abramovich’s activities was her last work, which became the subject of Akers' documentary.

In 2010, at the New York Museum of Modern Art, Marina Abramovic, with the support of several dozen volunteer students, held a retrospective of her installations. While the “art volunteers” whom Abramovich entrusted with the reproduction of her legendary works, filled the spaces of the museum, the provocative artist performed a unique performance that lasted more than 736 hours. Anyone could sit opposite Marina and just look into her eyes for half an hour. Remember the children's game: who will reconsider who? In Abramovich's case, this kind of fun made most people cry. Why? this is it main question film.

“Lady Gaga has released her new depraved video!,” the news presenter on one of the American channels is indignant, “But what is more outrageous: the Museum of Modern Art is hosting an exhibition of Marina Abra Abramovic. So, in order to get inside, you need to go through two naked people! And this is at the Museum of Modern Art?! What is art today?!” It couldn't be better! This, in my opinion, is the beauty of documentary cinema - it is a snapshot of our society, without inventions and unnecessary directorial conjectures.

Now, our society, in its indisputable majority, asks the question: where is this border that determines what is art and what is perversion? And thousands of people who came to Marina Abramovic’s exhibition came for an answer to their question. We came to look into the eyes of one of those artists who made titanic efforts to leave classical art forms to the past. What did they receive in response? In return they received themselves. In the eyes of the Yugoslav artist they saw those dark corners of their souls that they were afraid to know. They didn't meet Abramovich's charisma, they met themselves. With those selves that Marina is not afraid to talk about in her works. With the pain of the soul that the performer does not hide behind a pile artistic symbols and techniques. No extra tricks or actions - just a glance. A frank heart-to-heart conversation only without words.

This is real art: annoying and demonstrating ourselves. Here we are: in the deep, mirroring gaze of an artist whose activity is annoying. An absolute exposure of individuality, uniqueness, which requires courage to meet. For three months, Marina Abramovic became a canvas for the projection of the soul of every viewer. Or rather, a self-guided guide who, through shock, led to the release of the inner, deep world, to those of our foundations, to the fundamental qualities that we are accustomed to suppress day after day under a layer of cultural and socio-political restrictions. No matter how pompous it may sound, Marina Abramovic was a guide to catharsis.

And all this is not simple far-fetched conclusions of a film buff who is accustomed to looking for meanings where it is simply ridiculous to hope for them. Everything that happened at the New York Museum of Modern Art, everything that became a documentary film a carefully thought-out action, the responsibility for which Marina Abramovich understood and bore from the very idea, from the very beginning. And this is clear not only from the fact that the artist deliberately subjected her body to severe physical tests (every day from the opening to the closing of the museum, Marina sat motionless on a chair), but from the fact that she appeared before the audience in dresses of biblical colors. Blue, red, white doom, martyrdom, salvation. But at the same time: blue, like the color of the Mother of God, who united the earthly and heavenly; red, as the color of the body and life-giving, the color of the Resurrection; white as the color of purity and holiness. All this is in every person. The projection of all this was Marina Abramovic.

Matthew Akers in to a greater extent made a career as a cameraman rather than as a director. In “Marina Abramovic: In the Presence of the Artist,” he, in addition to film production, also decided to “get behind the lens.” This determined not only the frame, but also the entire architecture of the picture. Like the beating of a metronome, the film flows steadily. To put it simply and more clearly, you look at the picture, as they say, in one breath.

In general, it is completely clear why the film received the Prize audience choice among documentaries at the Berlin Film Festival 2012, and why it was nominated for the Grand Prix in the category " Documentary"at one of the largest and most authoritative film festivals today, Sundance 2012. “Marina Abramovic: in the presence of the artist” this is a must see!