Marina Abramovic's Art Exhibition: Unusual Installation With Nude Performers (https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/start-here-marina-abramovic)
In order to attend art world icon Marina Abramovic’s upcoming art exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, visitors have to squeeze between two nude performers.
The unusual entry performance was called Imponderabilia, and description reads: “Two naked performance artists stand either side of a narrow doorway. The audience is invited to pass sideways between them. Abramović and Ulay performed the work to explore the idea of “the artist as a door to the museum”.
It was first presented in in 1977 by Ms. Abramović and her then German partner, Ulay.
Andrea Tarsia, the Royal Academy”s head of exhibitions told BBC that the participating in the performance enables a “confrontation between nakedness, and the gender, the sexuality, the desire.”
A separate entrance is available at the exhibition to those who are uncomfortable squeezing through nude models.
Ms. Abramovic is the first female artist to have a solo exhibition in the history of the Royal Academy”s principal galleries, Wales Online reports.
Other performances at the exhibition include “Nude with Skeleton” where “A performance artist lies beneath a skeleton, which rises and falls with their breath,” “Luminosity” where “The performance artist sits suspended on a wall-mounted bicycle saddle, under bright lights, with their arms and legs extended,”and “The house with the ocean view.” The last-mentioned work will be reperformed at three points during the exhibition period, in which “a performance artist will live in a specially constructed house in the Mai Main Galleries for 12 consecutive days.”
The exhibition will showcase Ms. Abramovic’s 50-year-long career through installation, sculpture, video and performance.Her notable works are reperformed in the exhibition by the next generation of performance artists, who are trained in the Marina Abramovic Method.
The exhibition, so far, has received mixed reviews from the critics; Guardian called it “vital”, the Times cited it was “remorseless.”
The exhibition commences on September 23 and continue till January 1, 2024.
