By Eliza Warfield.
Exploring the limits of pain, mental control, and danger are all concepts that have enshrined Marina Abramović’s performance art for the past fifty years. She is considered the figurehead of this form of artwork and is highly recognised. Her work is deeply visceral and requires the combination of her emotions, her body, resilience, and an interaction with the audience. By nature, her work is extremely controversial, she tests the limits of physical and mental endurance through public displays that include; ‘The Artist is Present’ (which involved 3 months of sitting opposite participating audience members in complete silence), ‘Rhythm 0’, (which explored the abuse of power – the audience were presented with 72 objects including a loaded gun and could subsequently use them in whatever manner they pleased on her). Finally, ‘Lovers’, (where she and her partner Ulay walked the Great Wall of China from opposite ends, to then meet in the middle to say goodbye to each other).
Abramović is now synonymous with performance art, referring to herself as ‘The Grandmother of such’. Her recent exhibition at the Royal Academy was testament to that. Extraordinarily, the first woman to have a solo show at the Royal Academy in 255 years, which is stupefying in several ways! (but that’s a different story). The exhibition in London is recreating performances of her early work. I went along to find out what these performances were like to experience in the flesh (in one case – literally!) .
The show includes several of her most important performances. One of my favourites was ‘Imponderabilia’ in which an entrance to one of the galleries is lined with two naked performers in a narrow doorway. The only way ‘through’ is to awkwardly, or not (if you have limited care or awareness for personal space), push through whilst attempting to not touch anything untoward or get a coat corner stuck somewhere (arguably worse). It’s a difficult manoeuvre, and one I found surprisingly confronting. The discomfort and willingness to participate is intended to vary person to person, making it a deeply personal encounter with the vulnerability of the human body.
The desire to go to this exhibition started from watching ‘The Artist is Present’ documentary, however in this instance it was slightly different as Marina wasn’t the focal performer at the RA. This is due to the fact the 76-year-old suffered a life-threatening embolism this year, rendering her too weak to perform any more so the options were reperformance, or I suppose, eradication.
In essence, after witnessing the recreated performances it made me question this…
Is Marina Abramović, the ‘Grandmother of performance art’, by getting the works performed by others, compromising and diluting the power of her work? The raw vulnerability in her pieces are inimitable, it doesn’t matter that her actors are trained personally- surely they are attempting something acting can’t replicate. The actors haven’t faced the specific turmoil of her life, experienced her heartbreak, put themselves in front of death to challenge society and I certainly don’t think any of them sat in MOMA every day for three months in complete silence, ushering audience members to sit in front and then have the impact she generated. Can a second-generation performance artist EVER deliver a piece of performance art with remotely the same energy and power as its creator (especially MA) did?
The reperformances I suppose offer a new perspective and opportunity for artists to give the work longevity; the new Van Gogh and Hockney experiences have exemplified this, but is this suited to her work? I think some do still provide the same feeling and are successful, this includes ‘Imponderabilia’ – it doesn’t matter which two naked bodies are lining an entrance, it still makes the audience uncomfortable and then challenge themselves looking inward. However, the new iteration of ‘House with a View’ just wasn’t as strong as Abramović’s. The performance involves being in this façade of a house for 24 hours a day over 12 days without any communication or form of entertainment. In this I would argue the actor didn’t quite replicate the authenticity and feed off the audience in the way she does, which makes a huge difference to the ‘success’ of the piece as there was a lack of connection between artist and audience.
I am by no means berating her work, I deeply admire her, and I wish I got to witness a performance with her in my life. Marina Abramović’s work is not ephemeral art, it’s more worthy than that and with proper showings and documentaries, her work can still hold the same impact it did when she moved people to tears from sheer eye contact and commanding presence. In preserving her legacy, it’s imperative she remains at the heart of the narrative as the pivotal figure around whom her artistic journey evolves. In the reperformances the acting task itself is virtually impossible, but maybe that’s the difference between the new pieces that work and those that don’t… they require a really brilliant actor to play the role. Maybe this is why there haven’t been as good of a performance artist thus far.
The exhibition is running until January 1st 2024, so urge everyone to go and experience it for themselves, it is something special. I will certainly be going again…