Marina Abramovic (b. 1946 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is a performance and video artist. A major theme found in many of her pieces is endurance. She has been known to push the limits of her own body to the extreme, participating in pieces which including her running into a wall until she collapsed (Interruption in Space, 1975), repeatedly stabbing her own hand (Rhythm 10, 1973) and screaming until she lost her voice (Freeing the Voice, 1975). Abramovic also challenged our sense identity in her pieces. In Role Exchange, Abramovic befriended (and ultimately traded places with) a prostitute in Amsterdam’s red light district. As the prostitute dressed in Abramovic’s clothing and attended a gallery opening, Abramovic dressed in the prostitute’s garb and occupied her space of work. Abramovic’s piece examined both gender roles and well as the role of viewer and spectator.
Just as Abramovic has a fascination with the role the artist and the viewer, I too have recently been exploring these roles in my work. While some may see the act of giving the viewer some element of control over the eventual outcome as a concession of power, others choose to see it differently. In Abramovic’s work, the sum of her parts produces a result much greater than expected. In Role Exchange, not only were the characters played by each person fascinating by themselves, but so too are the parallels one can draw by observing both in action. For example, both the artist’s gallery and the prostitute’s brothel contain huge picture windows, and both characters deal with a window as an interface – a division between a public and a private space. In both cases, doorways serve as divisions between the inside and outside world, the sexual and the non-sexual. From a feminist perspective, the space in both locales have similar meaning as well. The characters in each are able to witness and engage, to dominate and subordinate and to create a new system of sexual identity (1).
I
In another piece titled Rhythm 0, Abramovic again collaborates with her audience, yet in a complete different way from in Role Exchange. For this performance, Abramovic sat at a table with 72 objects placed in front of her. The objects raged from a seemingly harmless devices such as a feather duster to objects which could inflict great pain. One such object was a loaded gun (2). Here again, Abramovic granted control to her audience, allowing them to do whatever they choose to do to her with these objects. Initially, the interactions were peaceful and subdued but they became more violent as time passed. As in Role Exchange, the participants played a crucial role in the piece. While onlookers may again view Abramovic’s piece as a succession of power, it can also be seen as quite the opposite. When the piece ends and Abramovic stands up and walks toward the participants, they begin to run away. At this point it becomes apparent that Abramovic body is more than a battered, lifeless soul.
Sources:
1. Novakov, Anna: Point of Access: Marina Abramovic’s 1975 Performance “Role Exchange”: Woman’s Art Journal., Vol. 24, No. 2 (Autumn, 2003 – Winter, 2004), pp. 31-35, pub. Woman’s Art, Inc.
2. Kaplan, Janet A., Deeper and Deeper: Interview, Art Journal, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 6-21, pub. College Art Association
