Saturday, July 9, 2011

"His voice is an emotional hologram of my soul"

I like this expression that Marina Abramovic used to describe the way she feels when listening to Antony Hegarty's singing.

Willem Dafoe and Marina Abramovic at the rehearsal in Manchester

 Tonight is a big premiere of what must be the cultural event number one in the world, "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic" in Manchester.

I am very glad that her performance-art at MoMA, "The Artist is Present", attracted so much attention, so strongly fascinated many people making her art finally reach far beyond the walls of Contemporary Art Museums and fancy workshops -- something that Louise Bourgeois (RIP) unfortunately never could have enjoyed during her life.

At the beginning of her exhibit at MoMA people were just curious, and then little by little the fascination gained momentum, people would come to wait long hours just to be able to sit in front of her and get to know her inner self -- establishing the contact that transcends the words: many people  ended up crying to highlight that elusive thing that we often see the modern director trying to emphasize in theaters: today when everything is fast, superficial and busy, people are (sub)consciously trying to wipe that burning feeling of being lonely, insignificant or insecure (Bieito did that in his Fidelio last night -- well at least in the parts that didn't get screwed up by the TV producer); having someone really seeing into you for a longer period of time brings that carefully hidden feeling of loneliness to the surface -- which is why so many people were fascinated by that experience (other Marina's moments can be seen on YT and among the recent ones see this or this).

The MoMA event was so huge that even Givenchy artistic director wanted to make a special photo-shoot with her. Unfortunately the result is technically dreadful [photoshopped beyond recognition!] but the idea was brilliant: a grand mother of performance art in a pic that carries a title "The Contract". Ha!



Anyways, if  anyone of my dear readers is in Manchester, AND managed to score the ticket (something I didn't succeed), a few lines after the tonight's show would be greatly appreciated.

Meanwhile, I'd like to encourage you to read this article about this long awaited premiere.

2 comments:

  1. You can still get tickets for Madrid @ Teatro Real

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  2. Thanks enecabe. I will certainly do that, but seeing the premiere was something I was hoping for...

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