Review of Marina Abramović at Stedelijk Museum. 07/2024.
Through, instruction, explanation and demonstration, Marina Abramović draws a link between endurance practices to test the physical body and reaching a state of calm emotionally. Her performances find the balance between meditation and presence.
Screaming until your voice runs out… staring into the eyes of strangers for 3 months… wearing huge heavy crystal ‘shoes for departure’ not to walk but to mentally depart… living in the gallery on show for 12 days with only water… walking 90 days along the Great Wall of China to get married to your partner of 13 years only to break up and not speak for the next 22 years… that kind of performance art.
Every work demands and holds your full attention. My first impression was that the Stedelijk museum had bitten way more than they could chew to pack so many of Abramovic’s work in the space they had. It was dense. I thought the space would not allow for the focus and quiet that each work required.
This was not a problem. The space had also achieved the balance that Abramović talks of. There is intensity and chaos, and there is meditation and calm.
It all makes sense in the last stage of the exhibition, participants are invited to sit down and count rice. You may think that sounds bored-out-of-my-brain type of boring activity, but that is because you have never sat down and counted rice! You are offered a lab coat, noise cancelling headphones, paper, pencil, and a small pile of rice and lentils to count as much as you like. I can tell you truly for that moment (I’m not sure how long I sat there…) counting the rice was my most important task and that was quite comforting.
Ten-out-of-ten-yes-sir!
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