CityLife

Marina Abramovic Presents

Marina Abramovic

PERFORMANCE Art does not have the best reputation in the world. Indeed, if one was being uncharitable, it could be argued that the medium is at best pretentious, and at worst attention-seeking.

These are presumptions which Marina Abramovic – the self-proclaimed “grandmother of performance art” seeks to break down with “Marina Abramovic Presents.

It's described as …” a four-hour spectacle where, in collaboration with other performance artists situated around the Whitworth Gallery, she takes the audience by the hand and deprograms them, enabling them to fully immerse themselves in the strange worlds they encounter in each room.''

As soon as you enter the Whitworth, you are asked to put on a white coat – a visual reminder that at all times you are experimenting with a whole new way of experiencing art.

And then there is the initial performance by Abramovic, where, in a soft voice that croons and lulls you into an almost catatonic state, she encourages your very being to slow down and connect with the space around you.

Staring competition

Over the course of an hour, the audience are taught how to make drinking a small cup of water last seven minutes, asked to take part in a staring competition with their neighbours and are shown how to appreciate the processes involved in taking a step.

We are even encouraged to indulge in a spot of primal screaming, an exhilarating process, albeit one that leaves you with a rather raw throat.  

The next three hours, where the audience are free to roam among – in some cases, interact with – the performances, are equally absorbing. I

n Gallery 6, Eunhye Huang performs The Road, where she hands members of the audience transistor radios, advising them to all tune to the same station, before skipping around the room feeding everyone spoonfuls of green jelly, which is wobbled in time to a Vivaldi string concerto.

Black leather gloves

On one of the grand staircases, Kira O’Reilly – naked, save for a pair of black leather gloves – slowly contorts her body to make it look as though she is falling down the stairs.

Each of her actions is a study in balletic grace, and you cannot fail to be mesmerised by her ability to make each movement look like a still photograph come to life.

The undisputed highpoint of the evening is Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich’s “glory hole”.

With only his mouth visible, members of the audience are encouraged to approach him to feed him food and water and brush his teeth; an interesting, if slightly unsettling experience.

Foetal position

However, some performances do not work as well. Terence Koh’s piece, where he lies in the middle of the floor in a foetal position, appears flat and uninspired, while Nico Vacellari’s punk rock stone bashing can only be experienced for 30 seconds before the onset of tinnitus.

And, for an event that prided itself on audience-performer interaction, it appeared as though many artists were unable, or unwilling, to engage with this idea.

Marina Abramovic Presents… is playful, exciting and innovative in equal measure.

However, while a few individual pieces might stay in the mind, it ultimately does little to quash the notion that performance art is just a load of pretentious frippery.