We aren't surprised that Marina Abramovic reached her Kickstarter goal after a summer of Marina-dominated news, but it feels like a huge relief nonetheless. On July 26, she launched a Kickstarter project to fund the Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI), a space for the preservation, research, and development of performance art. After a storm of mostly weird—and we expect no less—publicity stunts, Abramovic finally reached her goal of $600,000. Today, the fund has reached $634,698, two days before her Kickstarter deadline.
Although we're happy that the MAI is actually happening, the best part of the last few months in the art world may have been Marina's overwhelmingly successful attempts to drum up enthusiasm for her Kickstarter project. She danced with Jay Z. She answered incredibly personal questions on Reddit. She did her best to tell a joke. And, she gotLady Gaga to walk around naked in the woods.
It's a bittersweet victory; we don't want the Marina craze to end just yet, but we feel like a weight has been lifted now that the MAI has its funding. At the same time, as we expect there will be plenty of opportunity for her to keep us entertained on the road to the MAI's expected opening in 2015. Also, she promised to hug everyone who donated to her Kickstarter, so we can't wait to see what that will look like.
