Trailer – Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present from Show of Force on Vimeo.
Have you ever seen something that completely changes the way you look at everything? Melodramatic as it should be, after watching Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present at home on HBO and then at The Film Forum on the very same day – I felt as if my world had transformed, shifted. The film is a beautifully visual documentary about the retrospective exhibition at the MOMA in 2010 of artist Marina Abramovic, who is known to the art world as the “grandmother of performance art”. A friend of had recommended it to me on Twitter. In this particular performance titled The Artist is Present, Marina sits still for a total 700 hours over the period of 3 months, as strangers sit still in front of her, for as long as they please. Most leave Marina in tears, moved by the energy of the artist and the shared experience.
I watched on in utter amazement of Marina’s commitment to her body of work over the past 40 years, the trust she has in herself, the beauty that she exudes, offering herself and her body for the art, the inclusiveness of collaborating with the public – I could go on and on. I’ve never understood a single artist’s work with so much clarity and connectivity. I can only imagine what it would have been like to sit with Marina during her exhibition at MOMA. I just hope that she continues to make art that we can all interact with. There’s so much to say about Marina herself and what is presented in this documentary that just can’t be covered in a short blog post. So I really encourage you to watch this for yourself, it’s on HBO on Demand right now.
Resources:
MOMA: The Artist is Present
Marina: A Documentary Film
Lady Gaga talks about Marina
Riccardo Tisci sits with Marina Abramovic
Jemima Kirke sits with Marina Abramovic
Bjork sits with Marina Abramovic