Marina Abramovic Is Going to Do “Nothing” for Her Next Artwork
"There is not any work. It's just me."
In news that will enrage haters of performance art, legendary provocateur Marina Abramovic just announced her next artwork: "nothing". Yup. The woman who once cut a star into her stomach then lay naked on a block of ice and invited audience members to point a loaded gun at her head — this artist is going to be doing absolutely nothing for eight hours a day, six days a week, for 65 days. No tricks.
For those more familiar with Abramovic's work, this new project at London's Serpentine Gallery sounds eerily similar to her most famous piece, The Artist Is Present. This 2010 performance work — which inspired its own documentary — involved Abramovic sitting in silence at the Museum of Modern Art staring at whoever sat opposite her. Dealing with intimacy and catharsis, the artwork became famous for its effect on audience members and spawned the fan blog Marina Abramovic Made Me Cry. From the pictures we can conclude that James Franco and Alan Rickman didn't shed a tear, but Jessa from Girls was bawling.
So, if your last work consisted of silently sitting in a chair and staring at people for 736 hours, how can your next piece be "nothing"? It's like when you tell a smartarse friend you're doing 'nothing' and they point out you're breathing, standing or looking. What will she be doing?
The real game changer here will be the audience. Stripped of all bags, jackets, watches, phones and cameras, each participant will enter the space where Abramovic has been completely disconnected from the outside world. The piece will be "unscripted and improvised", entirely dependent on audience behaviour and action. "There is not any work. It's just me," said the artist on BBC Radio. "The public is my live material. It is the most radical, the most pure I can do."
Take a good look, people. At this point Marina Abramovic basically is art.
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