Marina Abramovic, Why are you Suddenly in my Life?

[RenaissanceLady]

Seriously. I feel as though my life has gone sideways.

Exactly a week ago on HBO, I watched, "Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film." In it, you'll keep seeing this strange dark-haired woman doing passionately intense things with Jay Z. (You'll want to watch it just for the full effect.)

Then, in this week's"Mysterious Universe" podcast to which I listened earlier today, I learn about this chick, who also happens to be that chick:
Marina Abramovic Institute: The Founders by Marina Abramovic Institute — Kickstarter

Who inspired this chick:
"The Abramovic Method Practiced by Lady Gaga"

(The video contains full-frontal female nudity, so, either completely avoid or watch with a giant tub of popcorn depending on your personal level of offense.)

Whose history involves being this chick:

The Argument: Why we can’t stop gawking at Marina Abramović’s pain

Abramović became a performance art superstar by torturing herself and daring us to look away. Why we can’t stop watching

In 2010 the Museum of Modern Art mounted a retrospective of the hardcore Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović. Young, naked artists recreated some of her most provocative pieces, while grainy video from the ’70s and ’80s projected Abramović’s greatest hits—the time she drove a van in circles for 16 hours straight, or carved a Yugoslavian red star into her stomach, whipped her back raw and lay on a crucifix made of ice.

In the museum’s atrium, Abramović performed a new work called “The Artist Is Present.” For more than seven hours a day, six days a week over three months, she sat completely still in a wooden chair as disciples, tourists and celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Lou Reed sat across from her for as long as they liked, and she held their gaze. Some lasted hours, others less than a minute. Some attempted their own amateur performance art: one person came dressed as her look-alike; another was escorted out when she stripped down before taking her place across from the artist. Hundreds of people broke into tears, inspiring a “Marina Abramović Made Me Cry” Tumblr. (The artist herself welled up when Ulay, her estranged artistic collaborator and ex-lover, sat down in the chair across from her.) Before long, people were camping out overnight for the chance to engage her in an epic staring contest. By the end of the run, 850,000 people had visited the exhibit, turning it into something between a highbrow freak show—which was declared obscene by the professional scolds at Fox News—and a mass self-help workshop.

For full story, please read: The Argument: Why we can’t stop gawking at Marina Abramović’s pain | torontolife.com

With this background:

Marina Abramović's great uncle was Patriarch Varnava of the Serbian Orthodox Church.[4] Both of her parents were Partisans[5] during the Second World War: her father Vojo was a commander who was acclaimed as a national hero after the War; her mother Danica was a major in the army and, in the 1960s, Director of the Museum of the Revolution and Art in Belgrade.

Abramović's father left the family in 1964. In an interview published in 1998, Abramović described how her "mother took complete military-style control of me and my brother. I was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock at night till I was 29 years old. ... [A]ll the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o'clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It's completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in the firestar, everything was done before 10 in the evening."[6]

Marina Abramović - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marina Abramovic, exactly a week ago I had no idea who you were. Then I watched this video, where you were nothing more than a strangely intense woman who was doing strangely intense things with Jay Z. Now I feel as though you've kicked down my front door and challenged me to a staring contest, which I lost. You've simultaneously crossed the boundaries between obscure performance artist, to pop culture icon, to some spiritual/other-worldly something-or-other who has even been covered on my favorite podcast.

I tend to have profound respect for those who put their entire lives "out there," ready to be judged, daring us to look away. Still, what is it about you that allows you to cross so many gray areas? Why did I hear about you on a paranormal podcast? For that matter, why am I writing about you now when I have so many productive things I could be doing?

It's all a mystery.

Any comments?

 

[pixelsmith]

very interesting. thanks for sharing. the video below was quite the performance.

 

[Randall]

An interesting fusion of performance art and intersubjectivity.