Marina Abramović born 11/30/1946 Grandmother of Performance Art 2010 NYMOMA Retrospective Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen) Born Nov 30, 1943
Rest Energy Amsterdam 1980 Relation Work. Universal conditions: - Limits of physical and psychic endurance - Gender roles - Identity and Endurance Rest Energy 4 minutes - Microphones picked up heartbeats and breathing.
Imponderabilia 1977
How they meet Meet 1975 Amsterdam Karma acquaintances remarkable similarities Tantric collaborators theosophy Collective being called the other (parts of two headed body ) Lived 5 years in old truck traveling and performing in Europe
Art Vital no fixed living-place passing limitations taking risks mobile energy no rehearsal no predicted end no repetition. They blurred the line between art and life Lived their convictions Often real danger becomes part of their artistic concept.
That Self (hair tied together) Hair is a kind of antenna, like air roots of trees. Ulay Buddhist vispassana focus upon present moment
Nightsea Crossing, various locations 1981-87
Marina Abramović (born Nov 30, 1946) [Being] the daughter of parents who are heroes is hell. Born Belgrade, Yugoslavia Repressive Tito s Communist dictatorship influenced early dangerous work. Parents: National icons Partisan war heroes fought against Nazis Mother = art historian, oversaw historic monuments Father = leaves family, Marina age 18 Mother strict curfew 10pm up to age 29. Leaves age 29 to live with Ulay. Your daughter has escaped! Few Performance artists continue working into later years.
Rhythm 0, 1974 (72 objects) I am the object 72 objects of pain and pleasure on table. She stood passively for 6 hours and let anyone do anything to her. Spectators to become collaborators, rather than just Observers. 3 min video: https://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=xtbkbsexfoq
Why? - About pushing the body and mind to and past the limits of endurance and in so doing allow artist and audience to find some form of transcendence. self-imposed penances. - Desire for unrestricted expression of mental and physical self. - Early period: about liberation, rebellion events were life/death - Performances were dangerous. - With Ulay: limits of body, gender relationships - After 1989: sculptural works with performance: furniture, crystals - Relationship to audience is essence of performance. The need to be completely open and vulnerable, to give everything - 100 percent to the activity and audience. About waiting following the lines of energy About ritual, reincarnation, Buddhism meditative studies
Ulay (B. Nov 30, 1943) Ulay born in bomb shelter during air raid: Solingen, Germany Real name: Frank Uwe Laysiepen Father died at his age 14; mother disappeared into woods Photography age 25 5 years with Polaroid Marries, has son leaves them in 1968 1976-88 meets/marries Marina Remarries and lives between Amsterdam and Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ulay Search for Identity 1971-76 Explores gender through transsexual and transvestite scene 1969-74 Affirmations Photographs self 5 years Polaroid 2 years dressed as female Get under skin of woman 2 year as mentally ill Tattoos - cuts off body, preserves
Ulay: Something Criminal in Art, New National Gallery, Belin Ulay takes painting Poor Poet by Carl Spitzweg What does painting mean? Impoverished poet, burning his own work to keep warm; writing new works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opzthxfmd2m
Expanding Space running into walls Video 3 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hequc0-aluo Nude - If performing, I don t care. That body is the body which presents the concept.
Breathing In Breathing Out (Belgrade 1977) Breath in Oxygen Breath out Carbon Dioxide 20 minutes collapse Unite lives until destruction
The Lovers: Great Wall Walk - 1988
Never to see each other again.
Performance Art Miley Cyrus - Lady Gaga What do you call Performance Art? Not theater pretend 1910 Futurists wild concerts 1916 Dada NY, Zurich 1922 Surrealism/automatism 1950 John Cage, Rauschenberg Lady Gaga and Marina
Bruce Nauman b 1941 Fountain 1966
Yves Klein Anthropométries, 1960
Yoko Ono b1933 Cut Piece 1964
Jospeh Beuys How to explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965
Allan Kaprow 1927-2006 Household, 1964 Father of Happenings
Chris Burden b 1946 Transfixed 1974 Venice, California Body Art Danger Art
Chris Burden Shoot 1971
Belgian artist Francis Alys Faith Moves Mountains, 2002 500 volunteers shoveled giant sand dune, by Lima, Puru. Moving geographical location a few inches. Pushed block of ice through city for 9 hours.
Ulay A Skeleton in the Closet Amsterdam 2015 Book launch and Performance Take temperature record Atmosphere of social setting Some pages of book are pink, Empty where Marina did not give permission to use images. Suit he was awarded $ Film: Project Cancer 2010
Balkan Baroque Golden Lion Award Venice Biennale 1997
Marina and crystals
House with the Ocean View - Sean Kelly Gallery, NY 2 mins: https://vimeo.com/72468884
Seven Easy Pieces Guggenheim rotunda 2005 Every night, Nov 9-15 5pm to midnight Marina, age 59 7 works by famous artists Like a memorial for PA Body Art not so daring with today s cosmetic surgery Stomach stapling, tattooing, prosthetics, transplants. Vito Acconci s Seedbed (1972)
Seven Easy Pieces Guggenheim rotunda 2005 Gina Pane s Conditioning (1973) seven works talk of the town because created among the visitors a sense of sublimation like prayer
Feminist? Promotes. women Does not frame work as feminist Rejects label because an artist has no gender Fiercely believes in individuality, that women not be tied to marriage, etc. - servitude Every piece is open feminism would limit or direct outcome 2015 Women in Art Award from Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) Hudson, NY Performance is fleeting, but this place is for time. That is what we will leave behind.
MAI Hudson, NY MAI
Legacy Together, they reinvented PA PA today hugely popular Marina Grandmother of Perf Art Marina and Ulay - few Perf artists continue such art in older ages Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI) Work that challenges limits of body by an artist, can transcend to an audience, who gains power and confidence in themselves as human beings.
Artist is Present, MOMA 2010 Peabody Award - documentary by Matthews Akers, 2012 Artist is Present - 2.5 min video https://vimeo.com/72711715 4 min Ulay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slbfugafyaa
The Artist is Present, a work staged at the MoMA in conjunction with a career survey and documented by HBO, Marina silently locked eyes, one at a time, with hundreds of thousands of spectators queued up over three months (736 hours total).