Marina Abramović at the MoMa

Performance artist Marina Abramović is all over the Internet so I've just discovered her work though she's been active for more than 30 years. Her work uses the body as a site of violence and a symbol of resilience. Abramović's performances are disturbing and challenging. Just reading her Wikipedia entry makes my stomach uneasy.

Currently, the MoMa is running a retrospective of her work. While Abramović is performing an original piece in the main atrium, other artists are upstairs recreating some of her most famous works.



In "The Artist is Present," Abramović is seated across a table from another chair where museum visitors can sit as long as they like. Some visitors have been brought to tears, while others only stay for a minute. The artist will be performing from opening to close for three months until the end of May.

The MoMa is posting photos online of all the participants on their Flickr stream. The brutally sharp photos are meant to be a documentation of the audience's experience; they say so much about the way we perform with art in a museum space.