Marina Abramović in Residence
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MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ IN RESIDENCE EDUCATION KIT LIST OF CONTENTS 1 Project No 30, Marina Abramović: In Residence 5 Marina Abramović: Artist’s practice and biography 11 Historical context: Performance, immateriality and duration in visual art 17 Performance and participation 18 Female performance artists and the body 21 Mind and body: Neuroscience and meditative practices 23 Australian Artists’ Residency Program 28 The venue: Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay 29 In the classroom 33 References 34 Acknowledgements Front cover : Photograph © 2014 Marco Anelli/Serpentine Galleries 512 Hours PROJECT No 30 MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: IN RESIDENCE We constantly like to be entertained, to get things from outside. We never take time to get in touch with ourselves … our inner self.1 Kaldor Public Art Project No 30, Marina of exercises, developed in over three decades of represents the latest conducting Cleaning the House workshops. Aimed development in the four-decade-long career initially at artists and performers, and ofen taking of pioneering performance artist, Marina place in remote locations over several days, these Abramović. The Project has been developed workshops were intended to eliminate distractions, specifically for Sydney, and follows the training participants in the concentration, self- innovative , presented to widespread control and willpower required to endure the acclaim at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 2014. rigours of durational performance. Marina Abramović will be present at Pier 2/3 for In Project No 30, Abramović invites a wider 12 days, conducting audiences through a series audience to give their time and energy, and to of exercises based on four decades of intensive participate in this open-ended act of exchange. research and practice. Each exercise in Pier 2/3 is a way of learning by doing, immersing the mind and body in a single Throughout the Project, Pier 2/3 becomes a space task, becoming acutely aware of minute details of reflection and transformation for artists and in the environment, and exploring physical and audiences. The downstairs level of the building psychological limits. Learning becomes a physical contains a series of spaces dedicated to the and mental transformation. These tasks are simple, participatory exercises, while the upstairs level but they can be arduous; they are slow, repetitive, houses the unique Australian Artists’ Residency even boring. To Abramović, the feeling of boredom Program. In this 24-hour residency a selection is crucial. Passing through countless emotional of twelve Australian artists live and work at Pier states – from curiosity to fascination, into boredom 2/3, developing their own practice under the and irritation, even to the depths of pain or the mentorship of Abramović and actively engaging discovery of inner bliss – it is up to participants to with the public through talks, workshops, experience and endure each state, to push beyond, performances and film screenings. and to explore what happens next. The study and teaching of meditative and ritual practices have long been central to Marina There is a need, a social need, Abramović’s work. The artist has designed a series for environments that allow people to stop, breathe, look away from their screens, and contemplate.2 PIER 2/3 HICKSON RD, WALSH BAY, SYDNEY 24 JUNE – 5 JULY 2015 1 THE EXPERIENCE Slowing our pace, we establish a steady, meditative rhythm. Walking as a meditative practice has its basis in religious traditions such as the Theravāda As visitors enter Pier 2/3, they are requested to branch of Buddhism, in which the swing of each deposit personal belongings, such as watches, leg through the air, followed by the pressure of phones and cameras, and are provided with noise- each foot on the ground serves to reinforce the cancelling headphones, allowing participation connection between the self and the environment.5 without unnecessary distractions. SLOW WALK COUNTING RICE COUNTING RICE PLATFORM LOOKING AT COLOUR Separate the rice from the lentils. MUTUAL GAZE Keep tally of each on a piece of paper.6 BEDS While each task has specific guidelines, there is no set order or timeframe for the experience. Visitors are free to follow these exercises in any order and for any length of time. SLOW WALK Walk as slowly as possible. Starting with your lef leg, complete these actions 512 Hours one at a time: Lif your foot, stretch your leg forward, touch the ground, move. Repeat with the right leg. In this task, we are given a pile of grains, and are Lifing, lifing, stretching, stretching, touching, required to separate rice from lentils, counting each moving.3 individual, tiny piece as we move it across the table. As in a mindfulness exercise, the task has a simple, Walking is among the most fundamental of human repetitive structure, designed to focus our complete movements - learned in infancy, it soon becomes an attention on the present moment automatic process, performed without conscious thought or efort. While some of us stroll for Repeating a single action until it becomes a kind pleasure, the idea of walking for its own sake can of ritual, this exercise draws on philosophical and seem like a luxury in our busy lives, as we hasten religious traditions, such as Catholic rosary beads or towards our destination. the japa mantra meditation of Tibetan Buddhism. Forms of repetitive practice can also be found in In the slow walk, we not only walk for the sake of everyday relaxation techniques, such as counting walking, but are required to turn our attention to sheep to fall asleep. the process itself. Through the simple technique of slowing our pace, we are made aware of each This task cannot be rushed. It is the very slowness, phase of the process, the motion of each part of steadiness and repetitiveness of the task that the body, and the motion of our bodies through requires focus, sets up a quiet rhythm and makes us space. Transforming an automatic process into aware of details. This task has no definitive outcome a series of individual movements requires a or goal - there is no prize for counting the most rice. high level of conscious awareness, triggering Indeed, the exercise is not about numbers or even activity in the frontal lobes of our brains. Recent counting, but rather the state it activates. research in neuroscience, in fact, indicates that walking is able to stimulate new brain growth. Psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge cites such a case of neurostimulation, in which a patient gained control of their symptoms by efectively rewiring their brain through the simple act of ‘conscious walking’.4 2 PLATFORM as part of Kaldor Public Art Project 27: 13 Rooms (2013), in which a painter continuously repainted a In everyday lives, we ofen find ourselves sharing single room in diferent colours. space with complete strangers. It is perhaps In this task, the chosen hue will have a distinct characteristic of urban life that we live in close impact on the individual experience. We each have proximity to others, even as we feel isolated from favourite colours. We are each aware of the cultural a genuine sense of community. Our usual reaction values attached to colour – such as the association may be a defensive one – we shif away, avoid eye of red with energy, passion and action. The primary contact or stare at our smartphones. colours of red, yellow and blue, in particular, may In this exercise, Abramović invites her audience remind us of the childhood joy of mixing paints to to step up onto a series of large wooden create new hues. Countless moods, memories and platforms that can be placed together in diferent associations will be distilled through the simple act configurations. We might find ourselves alone, or in of stopping and looking at colour. a group of strangers. Without everyday distractions, we are required to focus complete attention on the simple task of standing together and on our MUTUAL GAZE communal presence. With these platforms, Abramović has created not a Sitting on opposite chairs, look at each other. sculptural object, but a prop or framework for the Motionless.9 exercise. While only a small height of the ground, This exercise requires us to look directly into the elevated platforms articulate a separate yet the eyes of another person, possibly a complete communal space. As we step up, we are conscious stranger. A simple enough task, it may be harder of moving from one space to another, committing than it seems. Many of us struggle to meet a direct ourselves to a shared place and a shared task, gaze, through fear of appearing rude, aggressive, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and opening vulnerable or even flirtatious. ourselves to the potential transfer of energy. The idea of the gaze has been much theorised in western art history. In simple terms, as we look LOOKING AT COLOUR at a painting, we occupy the same viewpoint as the artist. The painting thus sets up a relationship between artist, viewer and subject, in which the This task draws from the practice of fixed-gaze subject - whether a human figure or a vase of meditation, in which we look intently at a single flowers - is defined by ‘being looked at’. When we point, such as the full moon or a candle flame. consider historical representations of idealised In traditional yoga practices, the cultivation of female bodies by male artists, the relationship a steady gaze is said to clear the eyes and mind, becomes more complicated, and fraught with issues filtering out distractions, and improving perception, of gender politics and power. While the mutual gaze concentration and self-awareness. exercise relates to these ongoing debates, it draws Here, we focus our gaze on a single square of colour.