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The Abramović Method

The famed performance artist’s most significant works are revisited to further blur the line between audience and participant

Paolo Ferrarini

2 April 2012

Marina Abramović has returned to Milan with a new performance, specially conceived for the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (PAC), her first major museum exhibition since her retrospective in 2010 at the MoMA. The Abramović Method continues Abramović’s three major performances from the last decade: The House With the Ocean View (2002), Seven Easy Pieces (2005) and The Artist is Present (2010). The focal point is always the constant relationship with the public, which becomes part of the artwork.

A retrospective of her most significant performances is presented among furniture with embedded minerals, allowing the public to interact with them while standing, sitting or lying down on the sculptures. These objects create a physical and mental pathway that transforms the PAC into an experience of darkness and light, absence and presence, altered perceptions.

Visitors can become performers and stand in absolute silence (thanks to special noise canceling headphones) expand their senses, observe (the rooms are provided with telescopes), and learn to listen. The Abramović Method aims to transform the artist, the performers and the public. In the video below we get a brief look at the piece in action.