512 Hours: Marina Abramović comes to the Serpentine and here is what we saw...

"With a decisive yet inviting look that bordered on hypnotic, she spotted me, approached and took me by the hand. Slowly she lead me to a corner of the room and gently positioned me so that my vision dissected the right angle of the wall. "Just wait 10 minutes"  she whispered, rubbing my shoulder with reassurance. the cynicism had gone, I was under her spell..." 

Culture Whisper was fortunate enough to attend an exclusive audience with Yugoslavian born Marina Abramović, a figure who has helped define performance art over the past 40 years. In what looks set to be the art event of the year, this summer she will conducting her first ‘durational’ performance in London, 512 hours, where she will hold the fort for 64 days at the Serpentine Gallery. The concept is simple. Marina will be present all day for 6 days a week, physically opening and closing the gallery doors herself. As director Julia Peyton-Jones remarked, from June to August, this will be Marina’s house.  

Why such an extensive occupancy? For Marina there is a simple impetus: “life is short so art should be longer”. Visitors are asked to leave all mobile and time-bearing electrical devices in lockers, temporarily exiting the relenting pressures of the twitter-sphere before entering a space that focuses on nothing other than the present moment. There will be no script, no plan, just the artist, the audience and a few ‘everyday objects’, around which live narratives can develop. What will happen? “I don’t Know” Marina admits, “you can feel in the moment what is the right thing to do.”

The history…

Abramović began her career in the 70s crafting a language for performance art that focused on endurance. In 1974 in her native Belgrade she invited visitors to do whatever they wanted to do to her, using a collection of 74 objects that included feather boas, knives, and even a loaded pistol. The following year, a nude Abramović slowly drank a bottle of red wine, carved a five point communist star into her abdomen with razor blades, and violently whipped herself to then lay for 30 minutes on a cross made of ice. 

Despite their sensationalism, these acts did not defy purpose. But whether it was to stab at cold war communism or to poeticise vulnerability and self-sacrifice, it was in Abramović’s execution of these performances that she harnessed a unique charisma. Whether through calculated balance, honest emotion, or emblazoned passion, her spiritualistic approach to performance continues to set her apart as the self-titled "grandmother" of performance art. 

The Serpentine show…

In 512 Hours, Abramović pares down performance to its bare essentials:  ‘I want to find out what really happened if nothing is happening’.  But it doesn’t escape a social purpose: “The only way to change this world is to change consciousness.” Coming out of what is know as the 'Abramović Method',  Marina asks us to step out of a mindset ruled by our smart phones and experience a cerebral cleanse that results in a more meditative approach to selfhood. 

 The show fits neatly into a gradual trajectory of simplification. In her recent retrospective at MoMA New York, she invited individuals to sit facing her in silence for as long as they wished. Here, the narrative is less predisposed.  More authority is given to the visitor, blurring the lines between performer, audience and participant. In a strange paradox this move towards ‘nothingness’ is her most extreme leap ever: “ I could not do anything more radical than I am doing now.” 

Whether or not Marina will be able to gain the willing participation and sympathy of a British public  –  one that that she admits have a worrying penchant for cynicism and excessive drinking at weekends  –  remains to be seen: "The only way that I can win is to be extremely vulnerable". Regardless of the outcome, one has to recognise that there is something profoundly valiant in this strange ritual of trying to create what she calls a “charismatic space from an empty space.”  As Culture Whisper experienced at the performance preview, it is her own undeniable charisma that shines through. Amazingly she does seem to create ‘art’ from ‘nothing’. 

A word of warning...

With only small groups being let into the Serpentine at once, it seems that if you want to be part of the performance a trying Abramovićian initiation ritual will be necessary: queuing may be the biggest lesson in endurance anyone has ever had. Arrive early in the morning to avoid disappointment. 

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