Marina Abramovic is preparing for an upcoming long-duration performance piece that will last for 65 days at London's Serpentine Gallery this summer, her first major performance since the "Artist Is Present" MoMA retrospective. In talking to BBC Radio 4, Abramovic revealed that for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, she will be in the space with strangers who come to see the performance, but she will bring and do nothing.
Abramovic says that she got an idea early one morning that scared her so much that she had to do it: "I called Hans Ulrich and I said 'I don't know how you're going to take this, but this is what I want to do: nothing...there's nothing.' There's no work, just me, and the public is my live material, and that's the most radical, the most pure I can do." The gallery says that visitors will be required to "literally and metaphorically leave their baggage behind," removing their bags, jackets, electronics, watches, and other distractions. "The public will become the performing body, participating in the delivery of an unprecedented moment in the history of performance art."
Abramovic said in the interview that she is unsure how the "cynical" British audience will take the performance, but as an artist she isn't letting her insecurities stop her. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The performance begins June 11 and runs through August 25. For more information, head to the Serpentine Gallery website.
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[via HuffingtonPost]
