Royal Academy of Arts, London, England, 2023

Marina Abramović.

This is quite a name if you are an artist or an admirer. It’s a name that has been part of my school curriculum for as long as that lasted and even after it was always on the radar. Unfortunately, I have never had the pleasure of seeing any of her performances live so this might not be the best text if you did have that opportunity.

Yesterday I got the chance to go to the Royal Academy of Arts in London for a Marina Abramović retrospective (+ one or two new works if I am not mistaken).

To be honest I am not very good at doing this kind of texts so bear with me on my rambles. 

It was quite interesting to me, as a person who never saw her perform live, to feel that the curation wouldn’t let the work speak for itself. Some rooms I think were quite well executed (Room 2: Public Participation for example) while others didn’t gave you space to breathe, if that makes sense. The sound and the amount of people and the need to move to actually see the piecew were quite disruptive of the experience. I am aware that this kind of presentation will never ever have the power of a proper performance. And I do think that maybe I should have managed my own expectations.

I was lucky enough to be able to see all the reenacts for the performances and it was interesting. I think my main opinion on it is that the representation of the original works shouldn’t had been as close to the the reenacts. Because once again, they were giving you an expectation that it can be difficult to manage if you are a new comer. Imponderabilia from 1977 and Nude with Skeleton 2002/05/10 were quite good examples of this.

But saying this I still feel some kind of electricity in my shoulders and movement when I think of it. There was quite a few shifts of energy during the exhibition and a lot of learning as it was good to actually get a full timeline of her work and life. 

 

There were 3 things that I really liked:

– Room 4 – Body limits. I wasn’t a particularly big fan of the central, double-screen curation. I felt like the sound disrupted the pieces a bit, even if you wanted to look at the pictures on the wall you wouldn’t interact with the videos, as per their character. But I did love, and I don’t know if this was on purpose or not, the perspective created between the videos, to the opposite wall. What the gaps would let you see. And I think if it was someone else it wouldn’t have worked. But because of the theme and being the same two artists, in an indirect way, it actually spoke to me.

– One thing that I liked a lot was that you can interact with the performance  Imponderabilia from 1977 (originally made by her and Ulay). It’s obviously reenacted but to me that was the first time during the exhibition that I felt the notion of energy. I gave myself time to settle into the piece and then passed the artists. And it was like I left something behind, it really did feel like it. But them in Room 8 – Portal, we are presented again with a portal, but this time coated in warm white crystals. And whatever I left behind… I “cleaned” while passing the crystal portal. I don’t think I got it back, but the feeling of leaving something was substituted with warmth and a sense of peace with all that the exhibition was bringing up in me.

– Room 11 – Luminosity The last performance, of the ocean view, was quite interesting. I really liked to be able to look at the performer but I was also quite uncomfortable being a viewer, if this makes sense. I was (and am) aware that this is also an experience for the artist, she was doing it because she wanted to. But it felt quite intimate to face her and feel. Especially in the way that I could go away whenever I please while she was there. Existing and performing. I really liked the stairs with the knives. A part of me kept thinking about how she could go up and down while feeling my own feet. There was definitely much more of a personal perspective here for me than on the other performances.

 

And I will leave it at that! Because my original text was about 4 pages long and sure let’s not bore anyone with our own notions! I still would love to see her work live tho. I know I will never see the classic and old-school works but I am curious to see where will she take her career on to and what will come out of it.

 

I do want to mention that to my delight, by the end of the visit, in the gift shop, we found my best friend’s book to sell. Which was the highest point of the day, and made me feel proud to a level I’ve never felt. Rita worked so much to have this book published and to see it for sale in The Royal Academy is something else! Whether you are a beginner in the world of arts or you are a super highs connoisseur, please give it a read. I promise you won’t regret it!

You can get it here!

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