The enchanting garden of Villa Imperiale, packed with artists, journalists and many correspondents, welcomed Marina Abramovic and the director of the performance The Life yesterday afternoon (the viewing of which has been extended at the Pescheria Visual Arts Center until Sunday 23 June) Todd Eckert, in an open and engaging dialogue. The Life debuted in 2019, but arrived in Pesaro in an updated version full of external content, such as the backstage video and the iconic red dress, which follows the one the artist wore as a child, made by her mother .
The challenge
For Abramovic this latest performance meant embarking on a dialogue with new technologies, those that she doesn’t particularly like, but which she decided to challenge: «I was afraid that the virtual wouldn’t give me the opportunity to create something real, but this mixed reality he did it. This path has different meanings, it allows you to have my presence even when I am no longer on this earth. This means immortality. People pass through me, I’m like a ghost.” A work that talks about intangible art: «Performance is something easy and difficult at the same time. I always find myself in the present to experience what I am experiencing. In my case, both physical and mental presence is important to create something with the public. It’s different to perform with an audience or without. Every person is different: what I perceive when observing a painting like the Mona Lisa is different from what anyone else perceives. The energy comes from both sides, from me and from the audience, regardless of the thought that it may be different. I have always worked to give everything, all of myself to the public, very different from when you look at a painting.”
«I don’t know what children will be like in 300 years»
Every art form is capable of giving us something, but Abramovic is quick to say: «Instagram and TikTok are not art!». On the future of this performance, on how she will be interpreted by young people in 100 or 300 years, she jokes: “I don’t know what children will be like in 300 years, maybe there won’t even be electricity anymore.” But she has a very specific idea about young people: «You don’t have to want to be an artist, either you are one or you aren’t», she comments. «You have to wake up in the morning with the need, with the need to want to accomplish something. It must be like breathing: we cannot live without breathing or even without art. But making art is difficult and necessary: a lot of sacrifices and hard work for 90% and 10% talent. Then you must never be afraid of what the critics say, you must never listen to anyone, but continue on your own path.” It’s a shame, however, that «for me only the category of “wow” artists is valid and two or three of these are born per century, but don’t be afraid: you always go against common thought».
The iconic phrase
The meeting moves towards its conclusion with one of her iconic phrases, those which for better or for worse have consecrated her to the general public: «My life is the performance, they are the same thing. I have always pushed myself to the limits, this is my art and my aim is to pass it on to the younger generations who will carry it into the future.”
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