Seductive, Fearless, And Outrageous, Marina Abramović Has Been Redefining What Art Is For Nearly Forty Years. Using Her Own Body As A Vehicle, Pushing Herself Beyond Her Physical And Mental Limits––And At Times Risking Her Life In The Process––She Creates Performances That Challenge, Shock, And Move Me.
She reconnects with her long-time collaborator and former lover Ulay. Together, they performed pieces that put her on the map, like imponderablia, in which each stood nude in a doorway, forcing members of the public to squeeze through and choose whom to face. They spent a few idyllic years traversing the european countryside in a van, nomadically performing in villages. Both ulay and abramovic get raw addressing the dissolution of their partnership. While waiting for permits to perform the great wall walk in china, where each started out on opposite ends of the great wall and walked thousands of kilometers to meet in the middle before turning around, ulay impregnated their translator. “but,” he says in the film, “she cheated on me with one of our friends.” after their break-up, abramovic was, in her words, “40, fat, ugly, and unwanted.” as a result, she grew her hair long, got into fashion, and began doing theater pieces—”because she wanted money,” ulay sneers. He provides a nervy foil, seething with admiration and resentment, as he reunites with his ex-girlfriend who became astoundingly more successful than he.
One writer featured in the film speculated that people were so taken with abramovic’s because she is a blank slate, a “giant canvas of projections” onto which the audience can assign their own meaning to her work. Whether or not it’s a work of art or not is up to the viewer, but one thing is certain: it is work.
THE WHITE COLLARS 