In accordance with the name of the festival, performance art has taken over the entire Queen Elizabeth Hall – the lobby, two concert halls, the stage, artists’ dressing rooms, technical rooms, etc. Visitors are invited to move freely and observe the works of artists created especially for this project. The performances last four hours, and the audience can come and go as they please.
Marina Abramović herself was present at the opening night of the festival on October 4 – she gave a lecture on the history and importance of performance art. She will also be present at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday, October 8, at 12 (all tickets for the “festival act” featuring the superstar herself have been sold). Spectators will have the opportunity to watch the performances on Saturday, October 7, from 12 and from 16, as well as on Sunday, October 8, from 12 and from 16. Tickets cost £60.
On the opening night of the festival on October 4, Marina Abramović delivered a lecture on the history and importance of performance art. Photo – Linda Nylinda
This performance exhibition explores themes of oppression, racism, violence, mortality and trauma. Audiences are warned that they will be exposed to nudity and loud noise. The key words of the project are endurance, presence and participation. “Infinite opportunities for encounters between audience and artists are created here,” promises the festival’s application. They show their performances Collective AbsentiaKarla Adra, Cassils, Paula Garcia, Miles Greenberg, Sandra Johnstone, Carlos Martiel, Yannis Papp, Paul Setúbal, Aleksandar Timotic and Despina Zaharopoulou.
The spectrum of demonstrated works is wide – from meditative to defiantly provocative. From October 4th to 6th, intersex artist Cassils showed his impressive performance here Tiresias/Tiresias. In this performance, Cassills melts a neoclassical Greek male sculpture made of ice with the warmth of his naked body. The mythological character Tiresias is known as the blind prophet of Thebes, who changed from a man to a woman for seven years.
Cassills interprets the myth of Tiresias as a story of endurance and transformation – “it shows the determination required to stand at the intersection of masculine and feminine”. For the exhibition in London, Cassills has created an extended one Tiresias version and in the presence of the audience melted ice sculptures inspired by the exhibits of the Victoria and Albert Museum in three days. On October 4, Cassils defeated Ivan Meštrović Torso of Strahinja Banović (1908), October 5 – Alphonsa Legro Torso (1890), while on October 6 – a piece of ice, allowing his body to create a new form. Cassils’ project in London had a special meaning because it was the artist’s last public performance before gender reassignment surgery.
The work of the Brazilian artist Paul Setúbal is impressive Because the Knees Bend, which explores the nature of violence. The artist is visible in a corridor with white walls, which visitors have to cross to get to other rooms where performances also take place. Paul Setúbal’s face and body are completely covered by black clothing, he constantly manipulates a police baton and aggressively beats it against the walls, leaving black marks on them.
Brazilian artist and researcher Paula Garcia performs with a radical performance. A job Body Noise No. 9/#9 Noise Body is part of a series of performances in which the artist covers her body with neodymium magnets and assistants pelt her with various pieces of iron until Paula García’s body completely disappears under this heavy industrial waste. This performance creates an almost unbearable noise, so earplugs are given to visitors.
A mesmerizing and mysterious work has been created by Canadian performance artist and sculptor Miles Greenberg. In performance Water in a heat wave/Water in a Heatwave several pairs of dark-skinned performers take part, placed on pedestals: they collide very slowly against each other, forming amazing sculptural forms.
Marina Abramović considers working with the younger generation of performance artists to be one of her missions. The institute she founded – Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) – organizes various events, training programs and showcases performance art around the world. The institute supports an interdisciplinary approach to performance and the cooperation of specialists from various fields – art, science, technology and spirituality. The aim of MAI is to focus on the complexity of the modern world and change people’s consciousness with the help of performance. The institute has implemented ambitious performance projects in São Paulo (2015), Athens (2016), Kyiv (2017), Bangkok (2018), Istanbul (2020) and Amsterdam (2022).
There are plenty of events in London this fall involving Marina Abramovic. Her solo exhibition is on view at the Royal Academy of Arts (read more here). It will be available for viewing until January 1, 2024.
On November 3, 5, 9 and 11, the English National Opera in London will be able to attend an opera performance directed by Marina Abramović The Seven Deaths of Maria Callasin which the artist plays Maria Kallas.
The book was recently launched in London Marina Abramovic. A visual biography/Marina Abramović: A Visual Biography. Art Center Southbank Centre in his own YouTube on the channel offers to watch a conversation between Marina Abramović and the author of the book, Katja Tileviča, about this edition.
Information: southbankcentre.co.uk, mai.art
2023-10-06 23:53:43
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