Patience with a Purpose

With fashion, art and culture moving at the ultimate speed of sound at the moment, a reminder of slowness is more than welcome. Marina Abramovic, literally takes this matter into her own hands. Through May, The Modern Museum of Art in New York exhibits a retrospective of the Serbian artists prolific thirty-year performance career. The show presents ‘reperformances’ of a number of Abramovics’ daring stunts over the years, as well as documentation through photographs, video and previously used props and sets. Proving to be the most patient, the artist will be present every day of the show, reperforming her own work Nightsea Crossing, in which she quietly sits still in the Atrium of the museum for up to ten hours a day. Visitors are invited to join her and share a moment of her peace and space. If successful and with the vigor of her past work, she is sure to be, it will be the longest durational performance, over 700 hours, ever presented in a museum.

Marina looks incredible in the space, in a floor sweeping dress, a different colour for each month. Starting in March in blue, followed by red and now in her final month, white, a pure and ideal conclusion to her stillness. The visitors to share her gaze have come from all walks of life and of all ages and a few characters that simply cannot get enough, (a gentleman joined her eleven times) or other self proclaimed performers, (a Marina Abramovic doppelganger in March). The work asks and truly requires visitors to be patient and take a moment to pause in their hectic city lives and hopefully will encourage a change of pace with a larger world wide audience.


The Artist is Present, Marina Abramovic, on view through May 31, MOMA

And you can check in daily with Marina here:
http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/marinaabramovic/index.html

Anush Mirbegian