"Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present"

The Trailer:

Director: Matthew Akers, Jeff Dupre

Cast: Marina Abramovic

Synopsis: While preparing for her exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Marina Abramovic reflects on her past and how it has brought her to this point, to her most important work.

This documentary is dazzling and seductive and heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. It is an emotional overload to the soul. And as an artist, I was moved deeply by Marina's candidness and willingness to be vulnerable with her audience as well as the people in her life. I have studied and followed Marina's work for quite a while and had actually read about this particular performance some years before I ever even knew that there was to be a film made documenting the whole display. And when I did hear about the documentary, I thought "well I just have to watch it". Marina's show at MoMA is a simple one, yet extremely grueling on her psyche and body: she sat across from a patron of the museum and simply gazed into their eyes.She did this for 7.5 hours a day, six days a week, for eleven weeks. While this may seem easy or undemanding, it is not and you can see how it affects her over the course of the exhibition. Also, the way people reacted to her and the moment and space they shared with her, for some it seems like they were having a spiritual experience with her; they cried, they put their hand to their chest, a gesture of gratitude. These people were experiencing a moment in their lives where someone was actually looking and them and truly seeing them, this is not something that occurs often in our day to day lives and it shows in their very real reactions. I was also intrigued to see how she herself prepares for such performances, along with how she prepared the young artists who recreated some of her most important works for the MoMA show: It was all very spiritual and being at peace with nature and self. I was inspired. 

And while the documentary did touch on some of her past performances, I wish there would have been more. I do realize that this film was made to document, what could be called, her magnum opus, but I really wanted to hear more about her past and how she came to this point. There was discussion of her relationship with Ulay, a fellow performance artist, who was also her lover for quite some time. They talked about the hardships they faced as a performance duo, but also as a couple. Both Marina and Ulay both told their side of the story and how it affected each other and their work, and how ultimately their differences led to their downfall. To watch them talk so warmly about each other, but also with so much heartache, was heartbreaking. It's harrowing to see two people who sincerely care about each other have to live knowing how much they've each hurt one another. 

Overall, I really admired and appreciated this documentary, not only for it's primary content, but also for how inspiring and encouraging it is. As an artist, it is enlightening to see how far art has come and how far art can go. I was also positively inspired by a lot of the wisdom Marina had to impart on us viewers about her life and her work and how it has taken so long for her to finally be taken seriously. I have already recommended others to watch this documentary, and I most certainly would re-watch this!