The Art Of Performance

by Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

One of the key practitioners of the art of performance art, Yugoslav-born Marina Ambramovic receives a stirring tribute to her unique cultural contribution in the feature film MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and proceeded to win the Panorama Audience Award the following month at the Berlin Film Festival. It now comes to New York’s premiere art house cinema, the Film Forum in downtown Manhattan for an exclusive two week run beginning on June 13. The film’s subject has been redefining what art is for nearly forty years. Her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art last year featured an extraordinary performance of her individual artistic process known as performance art. Experienced by over 750,000 people during the MoMA run, the artist sat in meditative silent pose at a small table for nearly 8 hours a day, not eating, drinking or moving. The intensity of her gaze, the intimacy of the act (paradoxically in a huge, brightly lit room, filled with onlookers) moved some to tears and other acts of extreme emotion. Matthew Akers’s film records the artist as she prepares herself physically and spiritually for the ordeal with tremendous discipline, humor and guile. With comments by MoMA curator Klaus Biesenbach, art critic Arthur Danto, gallerist Sean Kelly, and hundreds of members of the public (including James Franco) who were obviously moved by this landmark event. For more information, visit: www.filmforum.org