Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers & Jeff Dupre ~ Release Date: January 20th, 2012
I had Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present sitting on my external hard drive for about a year. Then I saw her forehead to forehead with Jay-Z in the “Picasso Baby” video and I kinda had to watch it then (There was also this weird video game about the film that I remember running across). The film documents about Marina Abramović’s illustrious career as a performance artist (She’s known as the “Grandmother of Performance Art) as well as her piece The Artist Is Present where she sat in a chair at the Museum of Modern Art for three months while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. It’s not a bad film and since I wasn’t really familiar with her work, I learned a lot of interesting stuff about a world I didn’t know. It also made me question what’s really art. Does carving a pentagram on your stomach art? I still don’t know.
Notable Scene: Marina Abramović shows how she was able to sit on a chair for three months all day without bathroom breaks: A hole in the middle of a wooden chair that connects to a hidden compartment that connect to a container that catches piss.
Should you see it?: If you’re like me and will basically watch any documentary, yes. If you aren’t into artsy films, you should probably pass.