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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Visual Art What Was It Like Standing in MoMA's Doorway Naked?

Posted by Jen Graves on Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 2:19 PM

The Abramovic Stare: COULD YOU HANDLE IT?

The Abramovic Stare: COULD YOU HANDLE IT?

The Marina Abramovic exhibition this spring at MoMA in New York was huge.

Thousands of people waiting in line just to sit across from the Serbian-born artist, stare at her, and have, you know, feelings and experiences. Christiane Amanpour and Lou Reed, Abramovic was looking at you!

And a cast of re-performers was hired to stage highlights from Abramovic's past works, including, most famously, the performance in which Abramovic and Ulay stood naked in an Italian gallery doorway people had to pass through in order to see the rest of the art.

People called the whole thing alternately wondrous, life-changing, problematic, and narcissistic. But nobody ignored it—and it caused lots of minds to wonder about the continuing future, and continuing past, of performance art in museums.

How was it being one of those re-performers? When did MoMA exercise too much protectiveness, and actually change the nature of the work? What was the interview to get the job like?

Heather Kravas, a performer who lives part of the year in Seattle, tells about it in this week's online-only version of the paper, here.

Comments (7) RSS

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It's not that exciting, really.

Now, the cafe bagels - that's something exciting at MOMA.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on September 1, 2010 at 2:25 PM

Jesus christ the art world is so full of shit.

Posted by wisepunk on September 1, 2010 at 2:27 PM

"People called the whole thing alternately wondrous, life-changing, problematic, and narcissistic. But nobody ignored it..."

I did. Well, until now. Shit, art wins again. &_&

Posted by Avtar on September 1, 2010 at 2:49 PM

Almost all "performance art" is just a random naked person being somewhere where naked people do not usually go. I will see this naked doorway stance, and raise it one naked mime.

Posted by Reg on September 1, 2010 at 2:51 PM

I post to Slog naked. Get that image out of your minds, art fans.

Posted by Fnarf

on September 1, 2010 at 2:55 PM

I went to MOMA this spring while her sit-down-and-stare thing was happening and it was pretty powerful to watch. I was surprised by how powerful. If I'd read about it in print somewhere, I would've written it off as a cheesy, stupid idea. But in person, there was a real energy there. Not just between her and the person sitting across from her, but also from the silent people in the crowd waiting with each other to be next in the chair. It was riveting. I watched for at least an hour and had a hard time walking away. I'd definitely go see more of her work in the future if I had the opportunity.

Posted by Meg on September 2, 2010 at 8:49 AM

I ignored it pretty much. She was there doing the sit down while I was there this spring and I walked by uninterested. I was too burnt out after hours with their fantastic collection of Rauschenberg combines to even go to the floor with her exhibit.

Posted by Big Unshaven Man on September 5, 2010 at 11:47 AM