Marina Abramović. Up till this year, I knew of her, but after the MoMA started hosting her show The Artist is Present, I think I know her. No, I haven't been taking part in the performance, crying in front of the artist. I've been getting to know her work and her career in a way that I think many people have and I hold the MoMA responsible for it.
It's a good thing. So much of her work and the work that the MoMA did not choose to support at this time has been in discussion, that I think that a dent is being made in the historicization of her era has begun in earnest. From today's opinion piece by Danto, to Laurie Anderson sitting down to interview Ambamović we have been treated to numerous resources that we should not take for granted.
But, as I've not experienced the work, I'd like to explore what it means that this is going on inside one of the NY'iest of NY institutions. Instead of being merely a review of other work, allowing a window into an era this is a show of surviving documents and new experiences for both the artist and the museum. The revival of Imponderabilia is not just a redo, a rehash, but brings up new problems that are unavoidable in a 3 month show that wasn't an issue in a one evening performance. This work has no heuristic issues when simulated on the interweb, but when actually planned for by an institution there are numerous legal, ethical, and ridiculous issues that will "arise."
Dick jokes aside, the twitterverse was a tweeting about a catheter, astronaut's diapers, and holding it. However this is dealt with, it's just the tip of the iceberg. She needed an army of performers to be able to pull of a fresh large scale attempt at these works. They cost money, and the MoMA supported her and her process. There is a bevy of naked people in the galleries that the audience is asked to touch in a polite manner. Imagine the lawyers at the MoMA when they were told about this performance?
By lending their venue to this type of work, the MoMA is saying that this work is equal to their physically present works like sculptures and paintings. This allows for their curators and historians to explore an area that they are often not, expanding the institutional knowledge and allowing for people like Danto to engage with the work on a historical level. The hybridity inherent in these performances (other people standing in for Abramović, the non-physical location of the work, the shift changes for the performers) increases the chances that newer artists will be allowed a space in the MoMA in the future, and the institution will be a comfortable with these questions.
It also cements her career in a way that probably everyone from her generation is jealous of. From the photographs, to her and Ulay breaking up during the Great Wall Walk I've seen people talking about her work like no other performance artist. For now, this show is the biggest thing going on. Explore her work. Find out what you do and don't like. There is more here than an empty chair.
