The Royal Academy of Arts’ long-standing male solo shows have witnessed a rupture at the arrival of the Serbian conceptual pioneer Marina Abramović (b. 1946, Yugoslavia). In collaboration with curator Andrea Tarsia, the artist is the Academy’s first female artist to have a retrospective in the main galleries in its 225-year history.

Marina Abramović, ‘The Spirit in Any Condition Does Not Burn’, 2011.

While many found Abramović’s absence to be counter-intuitive to her ‘artist-is-present’ approach, the Royal Academy placed impetus on the exhibition being a ‘reperformance’. Abramović’s intention was certainly not compromised and instead challenged the visitor to focus more deeply on their own personal interaction with her work.

Abramović disrupted the role of the visitor, often a passive onlooker, and in breaking down the intangible barrier between the artwork and the artist, challenged viewers or, more so, participators and their comfort zone. In many instances, visitors experienced her work in a visceral way as a heightened awareness of oneself and surroundings was brought on by the low lights, blood-red walls and interactive elements. This was particularly evident in the dilemma one faced in reenacting the original Imponderabilia (1977). Passing through two students of the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), the participant would have to decide whether to face the man or woman or whether to remain a curious voyeur. 

Marina Abramović ‘Imponderabilia‘, 1977.

While the artist was notably absent, Abramović’s overall presence ricocheted around the hallowed halls as video footage of her body being pushed to the limits of its capability, like screaming to the point of physical exhaustion in AAA-AAA (1978), was displayed in an immersive maze.

Marina Abramović and Ulay, ‘AAA-AAA‘, 1978.

The exhibition confronted issues of politics, religion, and gender centred around the body as artwork. In certain instances, Abramović’s confrontation of her corporeality as a mode of communication explored close to self-sacrificial bodily harm as in a still from The Lips of Thomas (1975), which made reference to biblical flagellation, as well as representing the star of Yugoslavia’s Communist regime, referencing her upbringing under the dictatorial rule of Tito.

Marina Abramović, The Lips of Thomas, 1975.

Whenever Abramović appeared vulnerable to an outsider, the sense of her underlying mastery behind each concept powered through, and the strength in her silence prevailed. Rest Energy (1980) is an example of this. While elements of the exhibition are interactive, other areas force the viewer to remain an onlooker tainted by a sense of complicity as we look at Abramović standing at the receiving end of a deadly counter-balance. As her now ex-partner and creative collaborator Ulay holds an unnervingly light grip on the taught string of a bow and arrow, one is aware of the power in Abramović’s gaze, steady and direct.

This potent gaze carries through the entire exhibition, one of considered action, solidarity and, at times, isolation. As they exit the space, one gets a sense of Abramović’s idiom ‘The spirit in any condition does not burn”, put into action. The Abramović spirit is pervasive throughout this retrospective.

Marina Abramović and Ulay, ‘Rest Energy’, 1981

Abramović and Artvisor

The advent of Abramović’s artistic career, Rhythm 0, a piece consisting of seventy-two objects set out on a long table covered with a white tablecloth and sixty-nine slides, occurred at Studio Morra in Naples in 1974. The slides are projected onto the gallery wall above the table from a projector on a stand, and a reference to the Studio can be found in the framed description.

Marina Abramović, Table with 72 objects, projector with slides of performance, and text from Rhythm 0, 1974

About the Artist 

Marina Abramović (b. 1946, Yugoslavia) is a conceptual and performance artist who focuses on the relationship between the performer and audience, the limits of the body and the possibilities of the mind. Her work spans from the exploration of ritual and gesture to collaborative work with her then-partner Ulay, which tested the physical limits of the body. 

Abramović’s presence is felt throughout large-scale international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (1976, 1997) and Documenta VI, VII and IX. (dates and include MoMA 2012) She was one of the first performance artists formally accepted by institutional museums. Abramović has an opera project, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, that will launch in November of 2023. 

 

Author: Kitty Atherton