Monday, December 03, 2012
WHEN IS A PERFORMANCE A PERFORMANCE AND WHEN IS IT REAL?
Someone says when it is ketchup it is performance. When it is blood, it is real.
There is not very much blood in today's film, an HBO documentary about the work and most recent installation of the same name
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (2012)
I have mixed feelings about performance art. For the most part I think that once you get the concept it is boring. But then I have never seen any performance art.
In this film you see people seeing performance art and it makes all the difference. After all, there is no art unless there are observers or, in this case, participants with the artist.
We watch people watching Abramovic and it is deeply moving. They are there in front of her and they are surrounded by reproductions of her past works performed by young artists who spent thirty days with her to "train" for the installations.
We meet her partner and lover Ulay and the two together are quite powerful. A reunion of sorts occurs.
I am not sure that I would go very far to see someone perform some mutilation or extra stressful performance or, for that matter, want to see this film again. But I have to admit that I was deeply moved.
I credit the maker of the documentary Matthew Akers.
He chose the time and place and the edits as well as how to use Abramovic in his film. So, the film is not the performance art.
I am glad that I saw the film. I would not want to see it again. But what I did see was very good and satisfying.
Someone in the film says that most people spend no more than 30 seconds looking at an art piece. Even the Mona Lisa. One thing about this artist is that she bears watching a lot longer than this and there will be a reaction. Even if it pisses you off, there is a reaction. The art worked. She would assert this and so do I.
I would be willing to watch this again with my hand on the FF so that makes it an almost 4 out of Netflix5.
