“I am looking for an art that really asks questions, an art which is disturbing, an art which really makes connections with our disconnected selves as well as making a connection with nature.” [1] It seems the best description of the work of Marina Abramovic comes from the artist herself. Born in Belgrade in 1946, the Serbian artist, Marina Abramovic has pioneered the use of performance and tested the limits of her body in her beguiling and often interactive art pieces, in her quest to explore the boundaries of artistic expression. Her artistic activity began at an early stage in the early 60s in her country of origin, the remote former Yugoslavia. She enrolled as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1965 and studied there for 5 years, developing her knowledge and passion of the subject. Abramovic was drawn to the most radical and imaginative works of art and immediately her work evolved into an expression and representation far from the conventional art of the time. In an interview with the artist in 1998, Abramovic told how her “mother took complete military-style control of me and my brother. I was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o’clock at night till I was 29 years old. … All the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o’clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It’s completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in the firestar, everything was done before 10 in the evening.” [2] By exploring other aspects of a more sensorial nature, her inspired ideas already hinted at more ambitious projects that could goad her success in the future.
Indeed, a few years later, in 1973, she realised her first performances. In these performances Marina truly tested the limits of her body, using it as her canvas and her pain as spectacle, these early works are among her most celebrated and in turn caused somewhat censure and judgment. Her interest was not in provoking shock or scandal as an artistic pose, but in experimenting with the physical and psychological limits of the human body. In doing this however she often needed the participation of the public as by looking at her and partaking in her performance the audience helped to create an energetic dialogue that helped her to cross her corporeal boundaries, mental and physical, and at the same time the threshold of political correctness. One of her most well known and challenging of these performances that really tested the audience and Marina herself was her piece titled “Rhythm 0”, performed in 1974 in Studio Morra in Naples (see image below). For this work she assigned herself a passive role and the audience an active one as they were the force to act upon her. Marina walked into the studio and stood at the front of the room, she opened her robe, revealing her naked self. In front of her was a table and placed upon it were 72 objects that the public were allowed to use on her in any way they wanted… She was vulnerable. According to the artist in an interview published in 1998 that was exactly how she wanted to feel; “Vulnerability is very important. It means that we are really completely alive and that is an extremely important space. This is for me the space from which my work generates.” [3]
Duration: six hours (8pm-2am)
A sign instructed the audience, which read; ‘There are 72 objects on the table that one can use on me as desired. I am the object. During this period I take full responsibility. ’ The objects varied; some were simply nice, feminine objects such as flowers or perfume that could give pleasure, while others were harmful and could be wielded to inflict pain upon her. Among them were nails, a hammer, a knife, a saw, and most notoriously a gun with a single bullet placed next to it on the table. This performance was to last 6 hours and the artist to remain impassive and silent throughout. At the beginning, the public acted cautiously, waiting for someone to make the first move and when the first member of the audience reacted, it was with modesty. However as time went on and Marina remained detached, some began to act more aggressively. They started to use the more harmful objects, looking at and wounding the vulnerable women in front of them as though she herself had become a mere object for their use. With this powerful performance Marina undoubtedly tested the physical and psychological limits of herself and her audience. As she described this experience later: “The experience I learned was that…if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed.”… “I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, 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 public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.” [4]
Marina Abramovic’s career has developed since her innovative performances in the 1970s. Two years after ‘Rhythm 0’ was staged, in 1976, she left Yugoslavia to continue her artistic activity in Amsterdam. Shortly after her arrival, she met the German performance artist Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen) with whom she shared countless ideas and feelings. They worked together for 13 years and both inspired each other to continue in their exploration of the limits of the human being and its resistance and together performed in similarly challenging pieces to her 1970s examples. One piece for example, involved the two artists connecting their mouths and taking in the other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all the oxygen. They managed to do this for seventeen minutes then they both fell unconscious as their lungs were full of carbon dioxide. This somewhat intimate piece titled ‘Death Self’ was to express the idea of a person’s ability to absorb life from another person. In 1988 however, the two artists ended their journey and Marina is once again working by herself and currently living in New York. The creative trajectory of Marina Abramovic is a primary reference point for new artists in search of a more conceptual and sensorial sincerity in their work. The Serbian born artist has developed her work primarily with her own body using herself as her canvas and tool for expression. With her performance art, Marina has explored her own physical and psychological limits and dedicated her life to her work. She is an artist who has not only expressed herself through her work, but one who has gone to great lengths to communicate her feelings and ideas as a creator, revealing what for many artists would be the secret ingredient of their work. To conclude therefore it seems that in Marina Abramovic, everything is as transparent and unbound as her naked body that continues to offer itself to the spectator.
Text: © Jennifer Angus, October, 2009
[1] Abramovic, Marina, “The Bridge/ El Puente,” (Milan, Charta, 1998)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramović. Quoted in Thomas McEvilley, “Stages of Energy: Performance Art Ground Zero?” in Abramović, Artist Body, [Charta, 1998].
[3] Abramovic, Marina, “The Bridge/ El Puente,” (Milan, Charta, 1998)
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramović
Tagged: artist, body, Jennifer Angus, Marina Abramovic, naked, performance art, portrait, Rhythm 0, spectator
