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The Museum of Modern Art
Unit 1: Lesson 7
Performance Art- Maria Hassabi | PLASTIC
- Yvonne Rainer: "The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there's nothing left to move?"
- Jannis Kounellis, "Da inventare sul posto (To invent on the spot)"
- Marina Abramović
- Marina Abramović: What is performance art?
- Marina Abramović: Marina's first performance
- Marina Abramović: The Body as medium
- Marina Abramović: Documenting performance
- Marina Abramović: Teaching the next generation
- Marina Abramović: "Cleaning the House" workshop
- Marina Abramović: Performance vs. acting
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Marina Abramović: Marina's first performance
Marina Abramović talks about her first performance, when she was a child. To learn more about what artists have to say, take our online course, Modern and Contemporary Art, 1945-1989. Created by The Museum of Modern Art.
Want to join the conversation?
- In what context could this have been considered her first performance, or any performance at all?(3 votes)
- Well, it may have no meaning without an audience, but it is still performing, and therefore, it is performance.(3 votes)
- Atshe talks about her nose. What's wrong with it?! Her mother seemed to like it. A prominent nose on a women is very becoming and lovely. In some cultures, it's highly regarded. There is nothing wrong with her nose. What's the problem?! 0:24(0 votes)
- The problem is always in person's head. Reality is what it is, but people project their thoughts on reality and call some of them "problems".(2 votes)
Video transcript
Marina: My first performance
was not in a (laughs) It was nothing to do with art, but I consider it was
the first performance. I really, really was very ugly as a child and I had this terrible
haircut over the ears and I wore orthopedic shoes
and I have a child face with a huge nose. It was impossible for me to even
look at myself in the mirror. I always asked my mother if she can go to the doctor with me
and we operate the nose and every time she would slap my face and say, "Out of the question." One day, I really made this perfect plan. I was absolutely fascinated
with Brigitte Bardot, so I took photographs from newspaper and I had all the photos of
Brigitte Bardot in my pocket and I had this plan of spinning
around fast, fast, fast, falling on the edge of the bed was sharp, break my nose, then we go to hospital, then I have Brigitte Bardot
photos already in the pockets, so in the case of, "There's
no time. We can fix it." I spin around, I miss the whole thing, I almost gave myself a cut and all the photographs of
Brigitte Bardot fall on the floor and my mother arrive in the
room and just slap my face. It was end of the Brigitte Bardot story. I consider this pretty much
as the first performance.