Arguably one of the most misunderstood art forms is that of performance art. Performance art is usually a live performance or exhibition done by an artist to make a statement on something they’re passionate about. Sometimes, the art can even involve audience participation. Many people take the approach of either searching for too much meaning, or saying that others are blindly assigning meaning to a strange event. However, when executed correctly, performance art can be powerful, and can make impactful statements on the world around us.
Serbian artist Marina Abramović was born in 1946 in Belgrade (which was, at the time still a part of Yugoslavia). Abramović would go on to be raised by her grandparents—who were deeply religious—and her mother—who was problematic at best. Abramović grew up surrounded by abuse from her mother, and by strict expectations from her grandparents. Early on she took an interest in art, despite the fact that she was never allowed to take professional classes.
From 1965 to 1970, Abramović studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, completing her postgraduate studies in Croatia in 1972 and then returning to teach in Serbia until 1975, when she launched her first performance.
Abramović’s first solo performances were all titled “Rhythm (insert number)”. Her biggest pieces of the time were titled “Rhythm 10”(1973), “Rhythm 5”(1974), “Rhythm 2”(1974), “Rhythm 4” (1974), and “Rhythm 0” (1974). In all of these, Abramović tried to push the limits of both her own body and those around her. Arguably her most famous piece, “Rhythm 0,” required her audience to pick an object from one of seventy-two placed on a table in front of her. Abramović took a passive role, holding a sign which stated that the audience was free to manipulate her body in any way they chose for six hours using the objects they chose. Among those objects were things that were intended to bring pleasure—such as honey, roses, or a feather—but also included objects that could harm her—scissors and a gun holding a single bullet. While the exhibit started relatively calm, with people moving her arms up or down, or placing roses on top of her head, after the audience realized that the artist truly was going to remain passive things took a darker turn. In an interview with The Guardian in 2017, Abramović stated “What I learned was that … if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you… I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes … one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.” This piece gained massive amounts of attention from the media, and set the stage for the rest of Abramović’s career.
In 1976, Abramović met West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen, after moving to Amsterdam. Later that year, they began to collaborate, exploring artistic ego and identity in exhibits such as “Breathing In/Breathing Out” (1977) and “Rest Energy” (1980). The two artists developed a very close relationship after some ten-odd years of intense work together, but in 1988, after tensions between them began to build, they decided to split. Before doing so, they created a final piece, which they titled “Lovers.” Here, they both started at opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, walking around 2,500 m
until they met in the middle and said goodbye. This event was meant to represent the time that it takes to say goodbye to a loved one; even if the relationship has turned sour, it can still be an extremely difficult thing to do.
Abramović would go on to create many pieces of live art in many world renowned museums, such as the Guggenhiem and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Her most recent large-scale piece was from March to May of 2010 at the MoMA titled “The Artist is Present.” In this piece, Abramović sat at a table in a silent room, inviting patrons to sit across from her. This piece was to make a statement about how instead of seeing art in a museum without forming a connection with the audience, Abramović would be there so that the audience could see her commitment to the art. On the opening night of the exhibit, Uwe Laysiepen came and sat across from Abramović. The two had not seen each other since “Lovers” (1988) and even though Abramović had sat there completely emotionless for most of the exhibit, when Laysiepen sat down she began to cry and extended her hand to him across the table. Videos of this exchange went viral, and many people pushed for the two artists to begin working together again. However, they did not, and Abramović continued on with the exhibit after Laysiepen’s ten minutes of sitting with her were over.
Although Abramović continues to work around the world, she has allowed her art to take the backburner for now to focus on her organization, the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a non-profit foundation for performance art. Abramović’s most recent work was set to open in September of 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was pushed back to the fall of 2021. According to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (where the exhibit was set to take place) “the exhibition will bring together works spanning her 50-year career, along with new works conceived especially for these galleries. As Abramović approaches her mid-70s, her new work reflects on changes to the artist’s body, and explores her perception of the transition between life and death.” The exhibit is her first of this nature and is set to end in December of 2023, and includes videos of her works, re-creations of some of her most famous pieces, and live talks with herself. Marina Abramović has been pushing her audience to re-think and re-discover their emotions for fifty years, and although it seems as if her career may be drawing to a relative close, I firmly believe that performance art would not exist as it is today without her artistic contributions.