"The Life" is the new performance by Marina Abramović at the Serpentine Gallery in London. However, the audience can only see the artist if they put on virtual reality glasses.
It has something of science fiction, 3D cinema and computer games with virtual reality glasses. The language is from "The Life", the new performance by Marina Abramović.
Her trademark is playing with the audience. This time, however, she is not there herself. The fact that she is using this large white hall in the Serpentine Gallery that she is rowing with her arms can only be seen by the audience if they put on special computer-controlled glasses.
Art through VR glasses
The surroundings are still visible through these glasses - the walls, the floor and the other people around you - but the glasses also transmit a three-dimensional image of the artist as she walks through the room, slowly stroking her face.
Todd Eckard has directed the film, bringing together technology and art: "We have shot Marina here biometrically, a normal film would simply be seen on a flat surface - but nothing in our world is flat. Marina is not an animation here, she is not an avatar in this performance, nor is she an actor in some computer game. We see Marina here completely, from all sides, as she moves through the space in which we are standing. So this performance will always look as if it's happening now to anyone who watches it at some point. It's not an artefact."
The entire production only cost more than a million euros for a short time.
Art for art philistines
Welcome to the world of performance art, welcome to the world of Marina Abramović, the woman who has been breaking down boundaries in this artistic genre for decades. She is an artist who knows how to turn complete silence, stillness and white walls into a spectacle that attracts even spectators who are not otherwise particularly interested in art.
Marina Abramović came to the Serpentine Gallery herself for this opening performance of "The Life", but she only said a few words about how proud she was to be here and that everything felt like a walk on the moon for her. Apart from that, she didn't give any interviews. The only thing that interests her is the connection with her viewers.
For this new performance, the Serpentine Gallery in London's Hyde Park has actually been transformed into a kind of laboratory. Everything is planned through, which is also Hanschrift Abramović - as a spectator, you don't just walk in and out again. Assistants in white coats accompany every visitor through the white-painted rooms.
4,000 people will watch the 19-minute spectacle in London over the next few days, admission is free - and all the seats were booked up within three hours. But unlike previous performances, this time anyone interested can hope that this work will be reproduced and repeated again.
Source: deutschlandfunkkultur / serpentinegalleries
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