Marina Abramović is a Serbian born performance artist, who has been using her body as “material” for her art since the 70’s.  She heightens elements of her biography to mental situations, simultaneously dramatizing them, and frequently goes to the limits (sometimes beyond) of both physical and mental boundaries. – or what I would have said if you were to ask me about Marina Abramović a few years back.

Now, the internet is overflowing with Abramović news, and I have to be honest, I needed time to pass over all the media frenzy to actually be able to sit down and put things together as to what exactly happened over the last few months (and believe me, there’s way more info out there than you will ever need). That being said, please, bear with me, it’s all a little confusing.

photo fastcocreate.com

So first, let’s go back to 2010, when Marina had a performance retrospective at the MOMA (The Artist Is Present), which included: “in an endeavor to transmit the presence of the artist and make her historical performances accessible to a larger audience, the first live re-performances of Abramović’s works by other people ever to be undertaken in a museum setting” and a new, original work performed by Abramović in which she shared a period of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Well, what do all mortals have in common? They just adore a good love story! So when Marina experienced a strong emotional reaction while seeing her former partner in life and art, Ulay, sitting in front of her, the internet angels started singing. Performance art or not, almost everyone saw the two meet again. Gifs, PowerPoint presentations, YouTube music videos, Facebook shares… I’m almost certain my 78 year old grandmother even shed a tear while secretly watching the video on her smart phone. And just like that, most of the internet population heard about Marina Abramović.

photo artobserved.com

Now, back to more recent times. A few months back, Jay-Z proposed to director Mark Romanek to make a video for his track “Picasso Baby”, an upcoming single from his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail. Mark Romanek, who is the director of some of the most memorable music videos of the past two decades had a striking idea: performance art. And about a month ago, it happened at Chelsea’s Pace Gallery. It was mainly a reenactment of Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present MoMA performance, a process that involved him singing the song for six hours straight in front of various people and Abramović herself. Of course, reactions ranged from excitement (HuffPost “Jay-Z is an artist — one of the defining artists of our time”) to bemusement (Gothamist called it “artful mockery of the art world”) to hand-wringing despair (Hyperallergic declared the event to be the day performance art died) and I really can’t say which one I’m feeling the most.

Then, after the “Picasso Baby” stunt, Marina started the Kickstarter campaign to raise founds for the Marina Abramović Institute, an idea she got back in 2010 while doing The Artist Is Present performance. Long story short: MAI is dedicated to the presentation and preservation of long durational work, including that of performance art, dance, theater, film, music, opera, and other forms that may develop in the future. Until the found raising campaign begun, Marina had paid $1.5 million out of pocket towards the early stages of MAI.

photo yatzer.com

Now the other bombshell: as part of the Kickstarter campaign, Lady Gaga decided to take it all off – mentally and physically – during a grueling three-day retreat at Abramović’s home in upstate New York – no computer, cell phone, watch, or makeup allowed. Marina instructed Lady Gaga in the Abramović Method-a series of exercises designed to heighten participants’ awareness of their physical and mental experience in the present moment, a method which will be the center focus of the MAI. Oh yes they did!

And again, reactions ranged, from very good to very bad to down right hilarious. Even more hilarious was the news put out by the global edition (www.theglobaledition.com), which stated: “Marina Abramović admits to Lady Gaga she was just fucking with her this entire time”. And again, everyone went mad: half were happy as could be and the other half simply outraged and probably in the first few days only a few really figured it out: the global news is a satirical news website, as they state in the about section: “We do our best not to provide you with factual and accurate information”. Most likely some of you just found out also, but don’t feel bad about it, I had no idea either untill a few days ago. In the meantime, Marina was busy raising money for her institute, pulling all the stops, like answering fan questions on reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jctbp/i_am_performance_artist_marina_abramovic_ask_me/) and Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/422090958/marina-abramovic-institute-the-founders/comments).

photo kalliopeamorphous.wordpress.com

The story has to have a happy ending: apparently the campaign reached it’s goal and beyond, but we’ll have to wait a while until everyone will be learning the Abramović method, since the MAI is said to open in 2015.

After all the drama, after all the critics yakking about how performance art died and what not, Marina Abramović is a very busy woman. From her Jay-z/Lady Gaga stunts, to telling light bulb jokes, to single handedly editing a movie about James Franco’s life, she seems to be taking over the internet and I have to tell you that the internet is loving it!

Surprised? I know I am, but then again… I’d rather see the Abramović method over and over again, than catch another glimpse of Miley Cyrus’s soggy ass…

by Alexandra Mateescu

Alexandra Mateescu is a photo-video junkie who left her imaginary super successful forensics career in favor of the University of Arts. She frequently gets mistaken with a 16 year old high school girl so you’ll never catch her without her ID, she has a strong passion for the 80’s, and her kind of art must be funny and a little bit ironic.

http://www.behance.net/alexandra_mateescu