CityLife

MIF: Marina Abramović Presents

Marina Abramović, by Marco Anelli

SECURING Marina Abramović, the grandmother of performance art, is one of Manchester International Festivals proudest boasts in 2009.

Yugoslavian-born Abramović paved the way for a type of performance art that seeks to explore the relationship between the audience and the performer, as well as highlight the contrast between the constraints of the body and the possibilities of the mind.

Her new work, Marina Abramović Presents..., is performed by Abramović and thirteen of the world's best performance artists, and is a rare opportunity to witness the world renowned artist.

Showing at the Whitworth Art Gallery from July 3-19, it is already being billed as the most unique piece of work she has ever created.

Renowned

According to Hans Ulrich Obrist, who co-conceived the work: “Manchester International Festival will return to the crossroads of visual art and performance by inviting world renowned Abramović to create an entirely new work over seventeen days of the Festival.

"The concept and the final, durational work, will be unlike anything conceived of or seen before.”

Other artists involved in the project include: Marie Cool and Fabio Balducci, Ivan Civic, Nikhil Chopra, Amanda Coogan, Yingmei Duan, Eunhye Hwang, Jamie Isenstein, Terence Koh, Alastair MacLennan, Kira O'Reilly, Melati Suryodarmo, Nico Vascellari, Jordan Wolfson and Tehching Hsieh (who Abramović calls a master and to whom the piece is dedicated).

The work is a four hour marathon, beginning with a one hour performance from Abramović herself. It is an extraordinary opportunity to see the artist at work in her longest ever piece - and yet, that is the most ordinary aspect of the project.

Contract

On attending, visitors will be asked to sign a contract to 'ensure their commitment to the full duration of the work' before Abramović spends the next hour 'de-programming' and 're-programming' them ready for the next three hour exprience.

Once the programming exercise is complete, visitors will be asked to explore the gallery for the next three hours - even though all the gallery's art works have been removed. The encounters Abramović expects to create will be the kind for which she is famed - the connection between audience and artist.

The art works will be banished from the art gallery for the full 17 days that the performance piece runs, although daytime visitors will be able to come into the Whitworth to witness the effects of the performance on the gallery space.

Socialist body

Since the early 1970s, Abramović has created work that explore consciousness and relation to other beings, and she has regularly reinterpreted other artists’ works.

"Her background instilled in her a sense that the socialist body was more powerful than the individual, allowing her to make her physically perilous acts even more rigorous," said organisers at the Manchester International Festival. 

"Her Rhythm pieces 10, 5, 2 and 0 explored ritual, extreme pain, unconsciousness and the relationship with the audience.

"In the latter work, she invited the audience to manipulate her in any way they wished, whether to inflict pleasure, pain, comfort or fear. Abramović noted after the performance that the audience had harmed her and then escaped an actual confrontation."

Marina Abramović Presents... is at the Whitworth Art Gallery from July 3-19. Suitable for people aged 12 and over; show contains some nudity.