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Modernisms 1900-1980
Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 12
Lesson 2: Performance art- Performance Art: An Introduction
- The Case for Performance Art
- Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud (Doro ni idomu)
- Marina Abramović: The Body as medium
- Marina Abramović: What is performance art?
- Marina Abramović
- Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
- Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Cleaning the museum—maintenance art
- Bill Viola, The Crossing
- Vito Acconci
- Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting
- Unlock Art: Frank Skinner on Performance Art
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Marina Abramović: The Body as medium
Marina Abramović talks about how she shifted from painting to performance art. Created by The Museum of Modern Art.
Want to join the conversation?
~1:01- is that her? And what was this "work"?(6 votes)
Yes, that's her.1:01(the image before & after) are from Rhythm 5 (1974) - she cut her hair & nails & threw them into the flames, then jumped inside the star herself and actually passed out from the smoke & lack of oxygen - several audience members intervened to extricate her, & she later commented, “I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit: when you lose consciousness you can’t be present; you can’t perform.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramović)(12 votes)
Who is recording it? Is it Sal?(5 votes)
It is Partner Content section, dude. Anything in here could be recorded outside KA. In this case, The Museum of Modern Art produced all these videos (about Performance Art) and had KA introducing them to us.(6 votes)
- Is The Museum of Modern Art a real existing museum?(3 votes)
Yes. It's on 53rd St in NYC between 5th & 6th Ave. And it's a beautiful building, with a huge collection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoMA(8 votes)
- Having a history in music, I would not argue her point of view that music would be a "higher" art, but I wonder - what is her reasoning for placing it there? And if she believes it, why is she not doing music, instead?(4 votes)
- The only hint she gives is saying that music "is so immaterial" - perhaps she admires it because it isn't made of anything, places it above all the other visual arts that are tied to the materials (in performance art, the body), or that ARE the materials: mixed, molded, sculpted, altered, but very real and therefore perhaps lower than music, which is made BY instruments but IS… an idea? is frequencies, sound waves through the air.
And as she said, she couldn't go back to the studio, being insular. Making music in many ways can be like that - composing, certainly, but also recording. She enjoys doing performance art and confronting the audience directly.(4 votes)
It seems like it is a lot of work and sacrifice just for a short temporary thing. What makes this so important to them?(3 votes)
1:01Video transcript
- It's very complicated
with this body thing, how it all happened. I was painting as a young artist. And mostly I was painting these clouds. And one day, sitting and
painting and looking at the sky I saw 12 military planes passing by. And they made these incredible
drawings in the sky. And I looked at them and I said, "God, it's ridiculous. I'm
painting these paintings that are so two dimensional. Maybe I can go to the
military base and ask for 12 planes and then make all
the drawings in the sky". I went to the military base, and my father was general in the army. So they call him and they say, "Your daughter is in our base. "Can you get her home because
she's out of her mind. "She wants 12 military
planes to paint the sky. "How much could this cost?" So after that I stopped painting and I start realizing that I can use any material I want:
fire, water and the body. At the moment when I start using the body it was such enormous
satisfaction that I had, and that I can communicate
with the public, that I never could do anything else. I could never go back to
the seclusion of the studio and be protected by the space there. The only way of expression is to perform. And if I put the kind of hierarchy of art I will always put definitely
the music on the top because it's so immaterial. And after this it will be performers. And then any other art. I mean, subject to point of view.