Chrissie Tes Marina Abramovié and the Public: A Theater of Exchange toa hed For three months in March 2010, Marina Abramové wil sitsilently in a chairin The Donald & and Catherine Marron Atrium of The Museum cf Moder art forthe duration of every day that the Museum is open fg 1) An empty chair place directly opposie her will be available fr any ‘ember of the public wo occupy fr astong they choose A small able willbe placed berween them The performance ara willbe delineated boy lange recangle of ight, around which the public wil gather What transpires aver thi long period wil be the curilaive result ofthe sient exchange between the artist the sequence of people who cecupy the ~ chair opposite her and the audience (6 2) Abramoviés performance ‘the longest of her career, draws onthe sparse carey of her early slo performances and the rigorous simplicity of he relation work perfor ‘maces made with Uay in che 1970" but the visual spectacularity and art historical weight ofthe space frames that simplicity as something inherently cheotical itis the tension between this theatricality and ber _-eaty stated aim of no rehearsal no predicted end, no repetion hat ‘places Abramaviés performance in a unig pasion within the history of performance ‘The grammar of Abramowés artistic vocabulary wes formed by th 19705 and has became an iconic pat of that era Her solo and collaborative wor with Uy epitomized that decade’ consolidation of ‘what the 1980s had begun: diemandling of the toxic crucible of Euro- pean modernity by replacing its prinary eulrura cipher-—paintig—with relational field of tim immateralis and precest The technological political and socal folution af the 1960s both eroded a collective sense of purpote and mde the possiblity af shared experince more complete than it had ever been before The experiential feld created ’y Abrarnovi and her Eutopean and American counterparts a decade later moved this utopian moment on to anew kindof shared experience in Abramovie's case using 2 powerful combination of duration and rect exchange The spel context of The Museum of Medern Arts Donald B and Catherine € Marron Atrium frames the dict exchange of Abramov new performance The large space sears upward dawing i visite fem several entrances end allowing numerous vits down onto the space from cutaway balconies and long vera windows on multiple floors above Those viewpoints conerg ona space hat perses beth a tery and public gathering place the vse and height evoking he open vistas ofthe Teatro Gimpico in Vicenza (ne) and adding a ied reading of theatrical spectacle abramawies performance complicates ths reading by fusing two sands of hence the damate spect of hearts appearance framed Within» larg rectangle of ight hat suggest stage on which he ives viewers to jon herd the Uheatzaliy of whieh Michal Fed accused Minimal (or what he tered “itera ar, whase phenomenological incision of oth is surrounding Space andthe viewer woul, fe feared replace the presente of he modernist experince of ar with presence" ine qua pon of tee red was objecting nt to theater per se but to heats a wait tat abramowie Ulayandothers of thelr generatin woul lo ‘eect ten eas ater for deren rezone Yet as fied ltr concluded in2963" when mort art [vith the notable exception of Abremaré and Ula) were abandoning peeormance what he had termed teatcaty was Infact postmdemism Ie then, unsurprising that Abramades | pevformance worl: has always ben on one lve theatieal, emerging $s itld outof the high moment of poster in the mi-29703 The core of Abomoiestheatealty formed by the combi nation of her use af eatharsigand he wt ower fs dairy She presents everyday actions os psychologically and visaly dramatic propos that éemand an open-ended emniement from tess sh Ber. performances and her works with Uay ae structured a, compasiional bleaux in whic the bodys placed ina pattern en dered imag by repaniveaftensyrametial actin, ob sbsolute _stlines (3 seg 6 ince the 1886 performances have been ‘acented by reas of song primary exorustlly delineated bythe ists doting The composton bate a strong relationship oe ltle- known related bodies of work made by heparin the 186s: lrge-ceale color Pelaois and ideotopesin which extended mes edt createUpp: the tamu of Modern An Seige Yes ee the Donald 8 and Catarina FNenman Sat ola 068-9 rotor frie Vaan Vn 1992-53 “Glande Monet Wate als. wits tableaus ofa hight stylized photographic stlIness (ee page 127)° The precision ofthese compositions achoas the ablea-lie structure of Lips of Thomas 1875} and the relation works, many of which were repeated privately forte camera in order to achieve a perfectly symmeticsl close-up rendering ofthe perfarmative ation leis thie visual and conceptual clarity tht allows the public to ake part in Abremovie's work: 0 wilingly Asin te relation works in her new performance the psychological and physical space around, the artist is stripped away to create an abstracted envionment, within which some kind of exchange, and eventual catharsis, can oc ‘cur Abramovie's silent presence communicates none ofthe abjetion, piychologies! facture, o existential fear expressed i the pecormance ‘works other male pees (Chris Burden vito Acconci, Paul MeCarthy of ‘Stuart Bisley) The disturbing psychological meaning of Vita Acconcis ‘Seedbd (1972, in which Acconci, ying undemeath a stoping wood ramp in the Sonnaberd Galery masturbated while eating his fantasies about the unseen visitors walking uneasily above him became in Abramovlés reepresentation ofthe historic performance atthe Guggenheim Museurn in 2005 an extended erate dialogue with her unseen viewers who ‘stood or sat around the fon istaning to Abramovies monclogue and in many cases enthusiastically engaging wth i ‘This recuperative iempuse recurs inthe new performance for Moka whase primary focus i the potential transformation ofthe AauGience through an aven more cirect encounter wth the artist Az Jn Seed this engagement ie Sltered through a seeen inthis aee theantistssiliness and silence which renders her distant despite ber close proximity Abfamovi uses this distancing in the Drechtian senset as 8 tol with which to nell in those present a heightened avare- ess of ther oun role in forming the artworks meaning But a in the Freudian paychosnalytic model to which her femevork is aleoinescep bly related the apparently blank screen or miror struggles to remain _a.neuteal surface The artist’ impassiveneas is only tetained through a (highly disciplined mental an physial concentration forged by her long, experience in strict meditative practice, a year spentin an isolated part y changed: ‘ofthe Central Australian desert’ and by thirtysx yeas of performances Involving stillness and silence maintained for long periods of time The accumulated emotional, psychic, and social baggage of hundreds of people overa three-month period manifested in unpedic- table forms up close inevitably afecs the artist, hoe illness deflects italmost impatceptdly back onto che viewer Yet her resulting vulnee- ability contains none ofthe potential for voltion deliberately et up Jn Rhytim 0 performed in 1974 in the Galeria Studio Morra Naples, in'which Abramové stood in the gallery near a table on which she ‘nad placed seventy-two objects, fom a roe to chains and a gun with ‘single bullet and for several hours, passively allowed-the puble to ‘do whatever they wished ce pages 45,9 31, 74-78) The disturbing violations to the artist that ensued, culminating nthe inevitsble aempted use of the gun evoke in the words of Antonin Artaud. “the exterirization of latent depth of cruelty that enable allof > _f the perverse possiblities ofthe spn to manifest herseve iran individual or @ people" ‘While the open structure of abramovie's new performance places the audience ina similariy ave role she i more concerned ‘with a more benign aspect of artaudiancruely=that of shaking the audience out of hei omttriabl social passivity Paradoxically, she does 0 UeUgh har um inertneds The arsts silent presence id the center f the space echoes the monomentality of Bamete Newnan s ‘sraken Obes (1963-9; se fig 1) whieh long occupied the same location in MoMAs atrium, but whose vast size sets up the opposite relationship ‘with the vewar 2 that of Abramov, whose human seale exactly mirrors that ofthe public Newman's sculpture balanced precariously between ‘the modemist language approved by Clement Greenborg and Fried and the post-modern theatricality of what the sculptor Rober Grosvenor escrived as Ideas that operate inthe space between floorand eg: Anticipates Abramov live presence ints articulation of Greenborg’s ‘bservation n 1967 thatthe borderline between art and non-are haa tobe soughtin the three-dimensional where seulptute was. and where everything material shat was nt art also was"?THe physical panelpation ofthe viewer in Abramowies performance 8 clesly defined lesen of he work takes Newman inimalt eulpeue to being distanced or cowed, by these pres ence of another peo Abramov peformance bot teralies Fed and undrines Robert Morass conerperancous exguient hat ones pista pactpation nthe sevngosculpare was a neces Ins re the bo subsite forthe animate object ont take on the ‘Soplaes objec seria By dlinesting rectangle fight around the performance that extends opatial eld nd tances from heiewers AbramoWes performance seo demonstrates ors argument hat the larger the Shject the argos spat felt This spotight at up a double pero. rmatve space that ade ager outrage that che parScpting vier rust negmste before arin tthe ier apace of able chair and ast his highly vial compoation assets the rot of abromorts pat patrysrcrce inthe ables vivant recalling te ninety day perfor trance tghtsee Crossing (1081-7. 6) which Abromavé and Uy Sotslenty sree a able for seven hours in ineean ferent museums ‘eros the world The two occupied De ame space a. he ewes, yet oe dstancecested bythe aed cei of Dalen eommniaton cieved tei stated intent ro crete 2 Taones permed bythe ‘pening and closing time ofthe museunt Th eae performances poe seor snilar closer structate and an almest photographic vil feral that tingihes ter rer 870 performances fateh 2 Dan sham whee dee engagement wd the sudience wa sucted through nguisic feedback anda topeegalenstructon of shared space Abrams new performance tans elements ofthe erie closed-elveuitsteucure bat be uptures ic by allowing a constant Imerement ofthe public in ad ova he perfrance space setng ipa cologuebeteen stillness and movement tot canbe traced Ua etorcliy ta eventesnth century theater and 9 1978 in which Arameri stood silently watching Ulsy prior a serie factions In Abramavies nes pexformanee Ula tle Is eccupled bythe ever-changing sequence o strangers ofboth sexes, heightening the unpreietaly ofthe outeoma Abraoovies resulting vulnerability ic coumervaleaby the rectangle fight whose border in- lee of commitment fom thar ho chao to cross it Ye unlike 2 proscenium are these according to Evington an allegory of sion works Menaong es ‘government ane socilconteal "there & nowhere te hide: Abramavies performance space arguably an alternative symbolic strctare tothe {fling corruption ofthe Serbian Communist state) contsins no wings. no curtains no teleed platform, and 2 30-degrea sight line The result. ing bighly charged shared experiences that unfold within and across this Patadoxica viel sage are exposed to everyone present, evoking Philip ‘uslandars observation of Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowsk that individual self-exposure undertaken in an arena of similarly exposed. individuals produces 2 ‘cleansing of our life by eliminating the fe: before the unknown other ar Abramov thie fear ofthe unknown other provides the evenial charge that allows the possibilty of transformation