“Outside museums, in noisy public squares, people look at people. Inside museums, we leave that realm and enter what might be called the group-mind, getting quiet to look at art. For the past two months, Marina Abramovic’s large-scale 40-year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, “The Artist Is Present”—featuring Abramovic herself, seated in queenly fashion in the museum’s atrium, nude performers re-creating her past work, and lots of audience participation—has turned the usually introspective institutional sphere into an existential circus of bizarre self-help.
“Since March 14, the 63-year old Yugoslavian-born performance artist has engaged in prolonged staring contests with museumgoers. She’s been there nearly every moment MoMA has been open, as she will be until the exhibit closes next week, on May 31. Widespread art-world rumors have abounded of her plastic surgery, of her catheterization for purposes of urination (about which, see here). All day, people have queued up to take turns sitting opposite Abramovic, staring at her for as long as they wish. A few wear wacky costumes; some cry; others stay all day, causing no end of complaining in line…”
Read More: In the end it was all about you, Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine.
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