Last month, John Kaldor and David Walsh announced their exciting new collaboration with international performance artist Marina Abramović. The two unique projects between KALDOR and MONA collectively aim to present a multi-faceted encounter with Abramovic’s practice and a holistic look at her creative life.
Beginning at MONA on 13 June (through to 5 October), ‘Private Archaelogy’, a solo exhibition will focus upon a comprehensive showing of Abramović’s background starting in the 1970s, each decade of her ongoing practice.
Following this Abramović will travel to Sydney for KALDOR’s 12 day intensive residency, presenting Abramović’s live performance works. Creating a transformative public art experience, Abramović’s second project begins 24 June at Pier 2/3 in Walsh Bay until 5 July 2015. This second show ‘Marina Abramović: In Residence’ aims to create a space of contemplation and creativity.
John Kaldor, Director of Kaldor Public Art Projects, stated, “Marina Abramović’s new Kaldor Public Art Project will be the first exhibition of its kind in Australia. It offers an incredible and rare opportunity for the public to experience firsthand the work of this important artist and to be part of the evolution of her practice. This project also offers a great opportunity for Kaldor Public Art Projects to collaborate with MONA to showcase two very different aspects of Marina’s art.”
Commenting on the project, Abramović said: “I have made a career as a performance artist for 40 years now and my relationship to the public is changing. It used to be very simple: the public was sitting in the audience and I was performing in front of them. Then, with my performance The Artist is Present, I created a one-to-one experience where the public was watching and only one person was actually experiencing. In 512 Hours, which I did at the Serpentine Galleries in London, the public were actually the ones performing and I just blended in.”
Blurring the lines between spectator and artist, in Sydney Abramović will invite the public to be immersed in the introspective piece. The audience will become the actors, introduced to the Abramović Method that engages the spectator with their own self-awareness.
Expanding on this Abramović states her intent; “In Sydney, for ‘Marina Abramović: In Residence’, I will be like a conductor in the exhibition space, but it will be the public who will take the physical and emotional journey. We constantly like to be entertained, to get things from outside. We never take time to get in touch with ourselves. Our inner self. My function in this new kind of performance situation is to show you, through the Abramović Method, what you can do for yourself. I wanted to make this big change because I understood that actually you can’t get any experience by me doing it for you. So I’m completely shifting the paradigm, changing the rules.”
An exciting element added to the event is the inclusion of 12 selected Australian performance artists who will join Marina Abramović and undergo mentoring from the renowned artist. Located upstairs above the performance space in the artists’ residency, the artists will live onsite with Abramović. It will be an amazing opportunity to show with such an established artist, and be able to interact with the public throughout the running of the residency.
Whether you are excited or just plain curious, these two projects are a welcome invitation into the world as seen through Marina Abramović’s eyes.
Private Archaeology
MONA – Museum of Old and New Art
13 June to 5 October, 2015
Hobart
Marina Abramović: In Residence
Kaldor Public Arts Project
24 June to 5 July, 2015
Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay, Sydney
FREE ENTRY (restricted to ages 12 years and above)
Image: Delia Nicholls, David Walsh and John Kaldor at the announcement
