My obsession with Marina Abramovic started many years ago while I was still in college. I had heard of her before in passing, due to my relationships with dancers and other performing artists, but I didn’t truly understand what she was about until her incredible exhibition at the MoMA in 2010. Actually, I still don’t think I completely understand her, but what I do feel is a overwhelming sense of adoration, respect and aspiration. She is a true artist and lives up to my own life motto: take your ambitions seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.
I went to Abramovic’s office in Tribeca to talk to her about her upcoming projects. Rather, she talked and myself and several other journalists sat around the table listening. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but we were all young women, clearly enamored with Abramovic’s career and energy. Oh, and the fact that she’s 65 and looks amazing. I know that kind of breaks down the whole feminist-icon thing, but I have to say it.
I’ve written many different versions of this feature with the attempt of not sounding so sycophantic, but I realized this was impossible. Sorry, journalism, I’m going all out with this one.
Marina (yes, I shall call her by her first name, to keep with the aforementioned tone of love) made our jobs easy as she talked for the majority of the time, waving her arms in enthusiasm and jumping from topic to topic. She asked us all what what we did, or rather, what we wanted to do. She understood the difference between a job and a career, and told us stories about how she worked at the post office, understanding that sometimes bills just have to get paid.
She also approached her feminist identity in the art world. To her, her work isn’t a particular statement on feminism, it is a statement on humanity. She is not a feminist, she is an artist who just happens to be a female not afraid of her own body or ideas. This spurs a conversation on the spirit and individual introspection; a plea to break down of what you should feel like versus what you actually do feel like.
Going from there, we talked about her work with the Hudson’s new Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art. The Institute works as both a museum, school and experiment in itself. If you are to take the "experience" that she offers, you must sign a contract dedicating several hours to the process. You will stand, sit and lie under and above different crystals while blindfolded and wearing noise-canceling headphones. You have no choice but to look inwardly and it’s all while an audience watches you. It’s a wheel of artistic experience that everyone in which everyone takes part. This is important to Abramovic; inward and outward expression in art is necessary to heal the wounds of the world. "This country is full of pain, yours especially. People are so disconnected. You create this blind zone and then you wait in one spot for a long time to cross the street. You just sit there on your consciousness, which is filmed and photographed... it’s absurd. You never want to look inside. Inside is where the pain is. Everything is concentrated and you wait to register it, but you can’t. For me, the public has not been trained to actually look inside of themselves."
You can tell this idea is truly the inspiration behind The Artist Is Present, especially through the deft documentary currently showing in select cities and HBO On Demand. When someone sits across from Marina, they are suddenly overwhelmed with emotion, either because a crowd is watching the interaction intently or it’s Marina herself staring into your soul.
According to Marina, the lesson here is really the power of the mind. She talks a lot about the power of the human mind and the capabilities that it has to overcome obstacles and transform the world around you. She touts positive energy over everything else. "Every single thought: negative or positive, gives you energy and can create. Once you understand this, you can improve yourself. You can reall start thinking what you’re thinking." She laughs at the statement but nods, "The physical is nothing. Your mind can control everything... It’s a little overwhelming, but it really makes an impact when you use it in performance."
After the meeting, the other journalists and I filed out of the office into the elevator. A moment of silence occurs followed by an outpouring of jubilance. We all felt so much better about ourselves and our "art," so much better about the outlook of New York and incredibly intrigued by the performance art that Marina creates. It was because of her own modus operandi that we all felt this way, her energy came in and swept through us like a magical cleanser, giving the feeling of just waking up from an incredible nap. Sure, that may sound a little silly to you, but trust me when I tell you, the experience is genuine, much like Marina’s art. Clearly, whatever is present here is something important, outside of the world of just performance art. Or maybe that’s just how I feel about Marina.
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