I had a conversation yesterday about the reaction we have to the people we hold in our hearts when we see them unexpectedly. This says it all;
This emotional video which features Serbia performance artist Marina Abramovic has gone viral for all the right reasons. Abramovic is a renowned Serbian performance artist based in New York and her work is known for exploring relationships between a performer and its audience.
The video is from a 2010 performance which saw Marina collaborate with New York’s Museum of Moder Art (MoMA). The video has so far got over 14 million views on YouTube.
The show called ‘Artist is Present’ featured Marina sitting for hours on a chair and strangers were invited to sit in front of her, but in silence. Abramovic could neither talk nor move and she sat for 7 hours each day sitting silently across from gallery dwellers.
But one day she broke the rules when her former lover and performance partner Ulay came and sat down next to her.The two artists had not met each other for 30 years. When Ulay sat on the chair front of her, Abramovic reacted emotionally and broke down. In the end, she had put her hand on the table to reach out to Ulay.
In an interview to Guardian, Abramovic said she had broken the protocol and reached out to grasp his hands across the table.
“Everyone cheered. “I absolutely didn’t expect he’d come to sit. The moment he sat – and everyone got very sentimental about it because they were projecting their own relationships on to us – but it was so incredibly difficult. It was the only time I broke the rules,” she told the Guardian.